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CONFLICTING PRINCIPLES 
IN TEACHING 

AND 

HOW TO ADJUST THEM 

BY 

CHARLES A. McMURRY 

Director of Training Department, Northern Illinois State 

Normal School, and Superintendent of Schools 

De Kalb, Illinois 




BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
(3Tbe Rtocrs'i&e pres'tf CambriDge 



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COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY CHARLES A. MCMURRY 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



GCfje S&itoersibe Crests 

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 



U . S . A 



AUG 10 1914 

©CI.A379070 



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TO 

Superintendent William H. Hatch 

Of Oak Park, Illinois 

My long-time friend and patron in educational work 

I dedicate this book 

As an expression of lasting friendship 



An inevitable dualism bisects nature, so that each thing 
is a half and suggests another thing to make it whole ; as 
spirit, matter, etc. . . . The same dualism underlies the 
nature and condition of man. 

Emerson. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

Opposing Principles or Dualisms in School 
Discipline and Instruction 

I. The Realm of Controversy 3 

II. School Management — Its Natural Dual- 
isms 12 

III. Instruction — Logical Continuity and 

Cross Lines in Thinking 48 

IV. Dictation and Independent Thought . . 75 

V. How to get Self- Activity and Initiative . 102 
I. Help and self-help. 
II. Interest and effort. 

VI. Standards of Excellence 138 

I. Over-thoroughness and superficiality. 
II. Perfection and crudeness in work. 

VII. Two Important Contrasts 162 

I. The concrete and the abstract. 
II. Form and content. 

VIII. Class Instruction and Individual Instruc- 
tion 190 

PART II 

Opposing Elements in General Educational 
Problems and Theories 

IX. Antithetical Elements in School Studies . 213 
I. The idealistic and the useful. 
II. The serious and the humorous. 



vi CONTENTS 

X. Contrasts in Child and in Society . . . 223 
I. The child, physical and mental. 
II. Heredity and environment. 
III. The individual and the social whole. 

XI. The Gulf between Theory and Practice . 237 

XII. The Controversy as to Scholarship and a 

Science of Education or Pedagogy . .252 

XIII. Three Pairs of Dual Principles in Educa- 

tion 261 

I. Conservatives and progressives. 

II. Secular versus moral education. 

III. General training and vocation. 

XIV. Conclusions 278 

Index 283 



CONFLICTING PRINCIPLES IN 
TEACHING 

PART I 

OPPOSING PRINCIPLES OR DUALISMS IN 
SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 



CONFLICTING PKINCIPLES 
IN TEACHING 

CHAPTER I 

THE REALM OF CONTROVERSY 

Jean Paul Richter, speaking in his Levana of the 
contradictions in family and home education, says: — 

If the secret variances of a large class of ordinary fathers 
were brought to light and laid down as a plan of studies, and 
an outline of moral education, they would run somewhat 
after this fashion: In the first hour pure morality must be 
read to the child, either by myself or the tutor; in the second, 
mixed morality, or that which may be applied to one's ad- 
vantage; in the third, "Do you not see that your father does 
so and so? " in the fourth, "You are little and this is only fit 
for grown people"; in the fifth, "The chief matter is that you 
should succeed in the world and become something in the 
State" ; in the sixth, "Not the temporary but the eternal 
determines the worth of man"; in the seventh, "Therefore 
rather suffer injustice and be kind"; in the eighth, "But de- 
fend yourself bravely if any one attack you"; in the ninth, 
"Do not make such a noise, dear child"; in the tenth, "A 
boy must not sit so quiet"; in the eleventh, "You must obey 
your parents better "; in the twelfth, "And educate yourself." 

So by the hourly change of his principles, the father con- 
ceals their untenableness and one-sidedness. As for his wife, 
she is neither like him nor like that harlequin who came on to 
the stage with a bundle of papers under each arm, and an- 
swered to the inquiry what he had under his right arm, 
"orders," and to what he had under his left, "counter- 
orders." But the mother might better be compared to a giant 
Briareus who had a hundred arms and a bundle of papers 
under each. 



4 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

Our practical education bristles with contradiction. 
Even a superficial survey of prevailing practice and 
principles in education shows them often running at 
cross-purposes. Learning to read in the first grade 
illustrates this. Some trained primary teachers de- 
mand a systematic formal drill in the phonetic elements 
combined with the forms of letters. Beginners are 
trained into the habit of quickly interpreting new word- 
forms by combining the elementary sounds. Other 
experienced and zealous primary teachers practice 
a sentence-and-thought method which makes the mas- 
tery of phonic elements and forms entirely secondary 
and incidental. A strong effort is made by such persons 
to avoid systematic formal drills. Primary readers and 
charts are worked out in accordance with each of these 
strongly contrasted methods of learning to read. In 
arithmetic, also, the spiral plan of arranging topics 
provides for a brief, incomplete treatment of a topic 
such as the table of long measure, and a frequent return 
to this topic at stated intervals after other intervening 
topics have had a similar short presentation. Such is 
the plan of the Werner arithmetics. Other arithmetics 
provide for a complete and adequate treatment of a 
topic at one time, in one series of continuous lessons, 
till it is mastered, that is, till the process is fully under- 
stood and variously applied. The two methods are in 
pronounced opposition. 

The source method of handling history topics in some 
cases dispenses with a textbook and seeks to construct 
history out of interesting original documents. The 



THE REALM OF CONTROVERSY 5 

more usual plan is a close adherence to an assigned les- 
son in a book, with no use of outside references. These 
are staring contrasts in method. Some teachers and 
county superintendents require children to learn and 
locate all the counties in a State like Illinois or Penn- 
sylvania. Other teachers and courses dispense entirely 
with this kind of local geographical information and 
deal with what they call more important facts and 
topics. Such contradictory practices and theories pre- 
vail all through our educational system and leave 
young teachers in a quandary. 

More reflective study of these difficulties reveals 
deeper-lying oppositions which are so fundamental as 
to constitute the knotty problems for thinkers and 
experts in education. Even the basis of moral educa- 
tion is in dispute, namely, whether it is secured through 
moral instruction and precept or through the direct 
guidance of behavior. People differ greatly as to the 
main purpose of the common school: with some it is 
mental discipline; with others useful and practical 
information; with still others it is breadth of social 
interest, and adjustment to life conditions, — citizen- 
ship in a broad and liberal sense. Vocational training 
and guidance are now coming into prominence, and 
relative to it there is wide diversity of plans and of 
controlling ideas. The old doctrine of formal mental 
discipline is still cherished by conservative teachers, 
while the opposing doctrine of interest and pleasure in 
the normal activities of study is strongly supported by 
many. The relative place and importance of inductive 



6 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

and deductive processes of thought, as applied to class- 
room work, are still in dispute. That old question — 
how to develop strong will-power — is still a matter of 
wide diversity of opinion. The elective system has its 
friends and enemies. In the opinion of enthusiastic 
advocates, the manual arts are to exert a reorganizing 
influence upon our elementary school course. Others 
believe that the manual arts must hold quite a subor- 
dinate place among the valuable studies of the com- 
mon school. In our educational meetings all these and 
many other topics have been the source of continued 
disagreement and controversy. 

Again, writers on education, like John Locke, Rous- 
seau, Montaigne, Spencer, Herbart, Huxley, Harris, 
Rein, William James, and Froebel, differ even to con- 
tradiction in their statement of fundamental doctrines. 
Most psychologists place emphasis upon the formation 
of right habits. Rousseau says that his Emile shall 
form no habits except the habit of not forming habits. 
Herbart requires, as a fundamental basis for the right 
kind of work, that school studies shall be essentially 
interesting, and affirms that studies which fail to 
awaken any permanent interest have but small value. 
William James, while admitting the value of interest, 
says, "It is certain that most school work, till it has 
become habitual and automatic, is repulsive." Such 
contrary views are not uncommon among all classes 
of writers upon educational topics. 

This diversity or contrariety of opinions among 
theorists and practical educators leads many people 



THE REALM OF CONTROVERSY 7 

easily to the conclusion that there are few settled 
standards in education, no real pedagogical science, 
and that our well-meant efforts to train teachers are 
not founded on broad basal principles, but are of the 
nature of devices and accommodations to practical 
needs. Whatever fundamental principles we may have 
are at least obscured and covered up by these contro- 
versies. The opponents and critics of a science of educa- 
tion discover in such disagreements and conflicts of 
opinion a direct support for their hostile criticisms. 
Now, if we can clear the field of all unnecessary con- 
troversies, we may be able to rescue our main educa- 
tional doctrines from discredit and thus secure a more 
generally acknowledged basis for educational science. 
Such wide variety of opinions and lack of agreement 
on fundamental issues are not only discouraging, but, 
to some extent, demoralizing, to the rank and file of 
teachers. Even principals and superintendents are 
disconcerted by these opposing claims which throw a 
hesitating uncertainty into a teacher's actions. In 
recent times this confusion of tongues has been in- 
creased by new elements of discord. The present unus- 
ually conflicting and chaotic state of our course of 
study and of our school doctrine and practice is due to 
rapid and radical changes, to numerous importations 
of new materials and new ideas, which have been rap- 
idly accumulated, but are not yet organized into a 
consistent plan. Our aims and our theories are now 
undergoing the process of reconstruction and reforma- 
tion: practice, in trying to keep up with these swift 



8 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

changes, takes on a variety of inconsistent forms. 
There has been a recasting of old methods and an evo- 
lution of the new. 

At lucid intervals in this long-drawn-out and wide- 
spread conflict, we may well seek a few moments for 
reflection and try to take stock of our situation and of 
our achievements. It is not difficult to discover that 
disagreement, conflict, and more or less confusion pre- 
vail in courses of study, in classroom practice, and in 
administrative policy. Much of this discord is inev- 
itable as a sort of clearing-house for adjusting claims 
and for sifting out essentials. 

From all this educational discussion and controversy 
we may expect, as time ripens, permanent and valuable 
results — sounder theories and better practice. Much 
of what appears radical contradiction in ideas and 
usages may prove in the end to be good doctrine car- 
ried to unwarranted extremes. Debate naturally leads 
to extreme statements. But debate or partisan con- 
troversy is a slow and exasperating method of reaching 
important results. It is quite possible that a more 
deliberate, many-sided, judicial attitude of mind 
toward our large educational problems would at once 
obliterate half our antagonisms and thus give us a 
much better chance to get at the main issues. Even 
in these larger and more fundamental problems delib- 
erate and carefully balanced judgments may harmo- 
nize differences and bring about agreement and unity of 
effort. From a broader, more inclusive point of view, 
these apparently conflicting principles, when properly 



THE REALM OF CONTROVERSY 9 

interpreted and adjusted to each other, are found to be 
the complementary segments of a larger whole. 

In education, as in other fields of human experience, 
fundamental issues are often double-faced, like the 
god Janus, looking in opposite directions. Our Federal 
Government, for example, with its balance of powers, is 
such a paradox, one out of many. It involves two poles 
of thought. The knotty problem for the thinker is the 
one that springs from two seemingly opposing prin- 
ciples which must somehow be brought into unison. 
It is this double-sided, paradoxical quality which 
makes the difficulty in the problem, without which it 
would not be a problem. The solution of such a prob- 
lem calls for a larger liberality of mind which can dis- 
cover a mutuality in seeming opposites. When two 
such warring principles maintain themselves strongly 
in educational discussion for a long period of time, the 
suspicion is justified that there may be some more com- 
prehensive view which will dissolve the antagonism 
and thus bring into light a larger segment of truth. 
From this point of view seeming antagonisms between 
educational doctrines are by no means objectionable 
or discouraging. They rather point out the centers of 
progressive effort, the very spots where energy can be 
expended to the best advantage in the search for a 
larger truth, a truth which will combine the opposites. 

As a result of past educational theorizing and prac- 
tice, we have a collection of important principles which 
are more or less scattered, isolated, and contradictory. 
A higher organization and unification of these princi- 



10 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

pies is demanded which will quench useless antagonisms 
and concentrate effort at the points of efficiency. 

Our purpose in this book is to point out the lines of 
reconciliation by which many of the now opposing 
forces can be brought into cooperation, the controver- 
sies set aside, and, perhaps, the knotty problems solved. 

A few points of controversy 

1. Should children be required to memorize important 
proverbs and statements of truth which they do not 
clearly understand? 

2. Is a marking system based on percentages a good 
arrangement for schools? 

3. Is it advisable to have the more capable children 
in a class by themselves, and the slower ones of 
about equal ability by themselves? 

4. Should prizes be given for excellence in school 
work? 

5. Should instruction in intermediate grades be chiefly 
oral, or should textbooks be mainly used? 

6. Should rules in arithmetic be thoroughly memor- 
ized? Also definitions in grammar? 

7. In manual training should all the children in a class 
make the same thing, of the same size, materials, 
dimensions, joints, etc.? Or, should each child make 
what he likes according to his own design? 

8. Should children's mistakes in English be corrected 
while they are reciting? 

9. Which is the better mode of instruction, private 
tutoring or teaching children in classes? 



THE REALM OF CONTROVERSY 11 

10. May children be held to a strict use of a phonic 
method in primary reading? 

11. Can we train the memory? 

12. Is the use of a spelling-book advisable? 

13. In language study is it better to learn a modern 
language, or an ancient language, first? 

14. Should games and construction exercises be used 
as a part of the regular school time? 

15. Should the "Three R's" receive the chief empha- 
sis in school, or are other studies of equal or more 
importance? 

16. Is the grammar school the place to begin vocational 
training? 

17. Is it well to introduce self-government into schools? 

18. Is it advisable to allow corporal punishment in 
schools? 



CHAPTER II 

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT — ITS NATURAL DUALISMS 

The management of children in a school is a double 
problem of individual and of social control, which in- 
volves necessary contradictions. One must bring into 
cooperation several groups of forces which only too 
easily are thrown into opposition. Where such con- 
flicts naturally arise, it is prudent to inquire into the 
sources of contradiction and the means of hindrance. 
One method of analyzing this complex problem is to 
pair off the contradictory elements and to search out 
in each case a broader principle of reconciliation and 
harmony. 

I. The first pair of opposites may be stated in the 
form of a question, — Can children be trained, at one 
and the same time, into two such opposite virtues as 
prompt obedience to authority and free, self -controlled, 
independent action? On the one hand, the school is 
under obligation to train children into the spirit and 
practice of obedience. The conduct of children must be 
regulated by law; for without it the school falls to 
pieces. Society itself, without this cohesive principle 
of obedience to authority, could not hold together. 
The school, by generating respect for authority and 
by basing upon this the habit of obedience to law, ful- 
fills one of its chief obligations to society. In organ- 
izing and administering the affairs of the school the 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 13 

principle of obedience to authority is, therefore, fun- 
damental. 

But, on the other hand, children in school, as else- 
where, require freedom. They are not slaves and are 
not to be trained into a slavish and cowering spirit. 
They have a birthright of freedom and independence, 
not to be curtailed, but encouraged and enlarged. In 
this respect the purpose of the school is not to suppress 
children, nor to subjugate them to arbitrary will, but 
rather to develop them into the spirit and habit of free- 
dom. It must become, of course, a regulated freedom, 
based upon respect for law. And herein is found the 
principle of adjustment by which these seeming oppo- 
sites are combined. 

In a special class made up of truant and troublesome 
boys from 12 to 15 years of age, drawn from several 
schools, we have been making the experiment of com- 
bining shop-work and school- work in nearly equal pro- 
portions, with the definite purpose of developing in 
them better habits of control in work and study. We 
are trying always to give them more freedom of action 
and at the same time to develop in them a cheerful 
obedience to school regulations. The chief inducement 
we can offer them is shop-work in printing, book-bind- 
ing, and wood-construction and other activities, which 
they like, which give them greater freedom of choice 
and action, and such a practical treatment of school 
studies as appeals to their needs and interests (voca- 
tional, etc.). Their habits of truancy and their lack of 
respect for orderliness and law are against our plans. 



14 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

But we are using every inducement that legitimate 
opportunity for free action can give to draw them 
under the sway of law and order. The abnormal home 
conditions and lawless habits already formed increase 
the difficulty of combining freedom and law. But the 
necessity for this combination is also more clear and 
imperative. The George Junior Republic in New York 
is a still more extreme illustration of a serious effort to 
bring lawless city boys under control by allowing them 
freedom for self-government in managing their affairs. 

Gradually, through the enlightening and directing 
influences of discipline and instruction, boys and girls 
are to develop toward larger self-control and freedom. 

By obedience to a well-administered, humane author- 
ity, they grow into intelligent regard for the regula- 
tions of school and of society. In the case of adoles- 
cents a stormy period often intervenes before these 
opposing principles get settled and adjusted to each 
other. At the close of their school years, if properly 
handled by parents and teachers, children should have 
acquired a respectful conformity to the regulations of 
home, of school, and of society. They should possess 
also an acquired skill in directing their own conduct 
independently, within the proper limits of law. This 
steady development into enlarged freedom of action 
under proper control takes place in every well-con- 
ducted family and in every well-managed school. 
Such a combination of obedience and freedom will 
serve the best purposes both of the individual and of 
society. 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 15 

How is the teacher to bring about this result? The 
theoretical statement of the difficulty and of the result 
to be achieved is easy. But the practical adjustment of 
the threatened discord is often a fine point of skill in 
management, requiring watchfulness, judgment, and 
patience. Obedience to authority and freedom to do 
as one pleases are often regarded by young people as 
strictly antagonistic. As children enter school in the 
first grade, the transition from the freedom of play to 
the orderly procedure of the school brings to light at 
once this conflict of forces. By its principle of order 
the school stands out in marked contrast to the sponta- 
neous and unregulated activities that precede. Experi- 
enced primary teachers report to me that they do not 
at once lay down fixed rules of action for the beginners. 
The previous free, unconstrained movements of the 
children and their lack of voluntary control make it 
prudent for the teacher to have few if any rules, to 
issue direct commands sparingly. Under the guidance 
of a kind and steady hand the little ones begin to ob- 
serve and even to feel the need of social order and of 
prompt conformity. But at best the change is a grad- 
ual one and requires tactful concession to a child's 
nature and stage of growth. In some children the lack 
of muscular control interferes at first with orderly 
movements about the room and in games. In other 
cases they have acquired at home whimsical or diso- 
bedient habits that must be supplanted by better ways 
and by a better spirit. This beginning of social control 
and this curbing of spontaneity without losing the 



16 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

sense of freedom is a beautiful illustration of artistic 
skill in teaching. 

In intermediate grades, again, when the spirit of 
boyish independence breaks out, parents and teachers 
make an effort to keep the noise and bluster of the 
youngsters within limits. They maintain the spirit of 
order and control against carelessness and freakishness, 
and also against willfulness and bad temper. But the 
freedom of the realm, as Whittier describes it in The 
Barefoot Boy, is a native birthright of the boy to be 
fully respected and provided for. A hearty and joyous 
temperament is a great aid in working out this prob- 
lem of control with boys. Teachers themselves should 
be boyish in their interests and enthusiasm. 

With the onset of adolescence in the grammar grades 
and in the high school a danger point is reached where 
authority and freedom seem, for a time, to part com- 
pany. The spirit of independence blazes up with phe- 
nomenal energy, while teachers and parents, taken, 
perhaps, by surprise, feel impelled to a powerful reac- 
tion from the side of authority. After all, it is neces- 
sary to some extent, as Arnold Winkelried said, to 
"make way for liberty." Wise parents and teachers 
find it prudent to allow the youth at this period consid- 
erable freedom. The outcome depends partly upon the 
strength of affections and habits already formed, and 
partly upon the sympathy and wisdom of parents and 
teachers in maintaining a just balance between author- 
ity and freedom. It is a storm-and-stress period full of 
cares and anxieties for those who feel responsible for its 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 17 

results. The spirit of freedom, and the spirit of obe- 
dience are not natural and easy yokefellows. It is 
a gradual process of adjustment by which they are 
brought into cooperation. Through experience and 
training, and the formation of habit, they learn to pull 
together. 

It is this ever-present possibility of conflict and mal- 
adjustment which makes all government, whether in 
the State, the home, or the school, a ticklish experi- 
ment. It is a genuine problem which every teacher 
must face the moment he steps into a schoolroom. Nor 
can the child himself avoid this struggle which should 
result in self-mastery. When John, in a fit of passion or 
of sulkiness, refuses openly to obey a reasonable order, 
the teacher must step in, sometimes with a strong hand, 
and enforce obedience. Such drastic action, however, 
should be exceptional, and used only as a final resort 
when other precautionary measures fail. The care and 
forethought of the teacher, in using milder measures 
of suggestion and of kindly advice, should in most 
cases prevent such a collision. 

In their school and playtime activities some chil- 
dren require encouragement to greater freedom of 
action; others need constraint. In a fourth-grade 
geography class, Katherine is reserved and taciturn, 
and never offers to recite or to ask a question. Mary, 
on the contrary, has a premature answer always ready, 
speaks out and interrupts others : she likes to talk. The 
problem is, how to encourage Katherine to more free- 
dom of expression and to teach Mary self-control and 



18 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

reserve. Each child is in need of a sympathetic friend 
to help her out of her unfortunate habit. Such a habit 
based upon temperament is only slowly overcome. It 
requires kindness, firmness, and patience in the in- 
structor. On the playground, Charles holds aloof as a 
mere passive onlooker. Peter rushes in eager to man- 
age and control the game. The former should somehow 
catch the social spirit and learn to cooperate freely with 
his fellows, while Peter should feel a touch of modesty 
and have more regard for the person and rights of 
others. The playground and the outdoor excursion are 
now recognized as the best places for discovering and 
cultivating these personal qualities, for checking some 
and encouraging others. 

The child is impulsive and unregulated. He is one- 
sided and extreme in his judgments. He is not a phil- 
osopher to discover the larger unity that combines 
opposing principles. The burden of compromise and 
adjustment lies upon the teacher with his larger experi- 
ence and more balanced judgment. He will survey 
wisely this complex situation with its natural conflicts. 
He will take the initiative and, by direct and indirect 
means, guide the child's actions through the ways of 
obedience into freedom. We know that it can be done 
and is done every day by skillful teachers. Yet it is not 
easy to formulate the process nor to furnish illustra- 
tions that will exactly fit special cases that may arise. 

The adjustment between opposing ideas is close and 
delicate. The teacher's own temperament and dispo- 
sition will combine and embody these opposing mental 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 19 

attitudes. The teacher who has learned to subordinate 
his own pleasure and freedom of action to just require- 
ments has already gained valuable experience in com- 
bining these discrepant elements of behavior. He has 
already developed into a larger freedom through self- 
control and obedience to law. He has often experienced 
the conflict of egoistic feelings with unselfish impulses 
and motives. For this reason he can better appreciate 
the struggle that is going on in the child's mind, and 
guide his impulsive movements toward rational self- 
control. Children are in the period of growth and 
change, of storm and stress, when the more complex 
and balanced habits of conduct have not yet been 
formed. Education, in this fundamental moral sense, 
is the process by which these conflicting elements in 
the child's unformed character are gradually adjusted 
and welded together into habits under the guidance of 
a wiser, more experienced person. The more complex 
habits are thus formed out of which the larger frame- 
work of character grows. 

Other important agencies in society are at work 
upon this same problem. In the family, the parents 
must daily practice with their children this fine art of 
reconciliation between authority and freedom. The 
failure of many homes to reach this standard in train- 
ing their children is the cause of endless misery and 
misfortune. If political governments could put into 
effective practice this art of training citizens to free- 
dom under law, perhaps conflicts, violence, civil brawls, 
and even war could be largely escaped. In countries 



20 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

like Mexico, where revolutions are the order of the 
day, government vibrates between the extremes of 
abitrary power and wild, reckless freedom. They run 
to lawlessness, or they submit for a time to a powerful 
dictator. They have not yet formed the complex habit 
of exercising freedom under law. Children are some- 
what like the half-civilized races which have not yet 
developed to the point of combining freedom with law. 
In a good many families this problem has already been 
partly solved, and children coming from such homes 
submit without conflict to all sensible school regula- 
tions. Many children, less fortunate in their home 
surroundings, must learn this important lesson in the 
school. 

II. Another phase of this same problem is found in a 
second form of contradiction. Decisiveness, or firm- 
ness, in dealing with children stands in contrast with 
gentleness. The teacher is called upon to be consist- 
ently firm and decisive in thought and action. He 
should not shift nor shuffle. He should find the right 
ground and stand upon it, come what may. Nothing 
short of this will command respect and secure author- 
ity. Teachers often neglect or forget their own rules, 
thus training children to do the same. It is better 
to make very few rules, perhaps only one important 
rule at a time; then follow this up steadily and per- 
sistently till the children are convinced that the mas- 
ter's action is steady and sure. Every such important 
ruling should be made only after deliberation and fore- 
thought; as far as possible with sound judgment as to 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 21 

ultimate consequences. In this way most serious mis- 
takes are avoided. Firmness and consistency should 
follow in the track of this decision and form the basis 
of a teacher's good repute. 

But decisiveness, if it stands alone, is often too 
abrupt and arbitrary. It gives needless offense by 
seeming to be hasty and inconsiderate. Important 
matters require to be handled with some deliberation, 
with proper show of courtesy to other opinions. At 
this point another quite opposite quality is imperatively 
needed, namely, gentleness. A gentle manner, a kindly 
spirit, a genuine good will toward children are quite as 
important as firmness. Gentleness is, indeed, a trait of 
human nature of some potency. It reconciles us to an 
unpleasant but necessary decision. It pours oil on the 
troubled waters and they subside. 

Unfortunately in some cases, gentleness glides over 
too easily into complaisance and indulgence. It needs 
something behind it to give it strength and so we come 
back to firmness or decision, which is the complement 
of gentleness. The teacher should combine the two, 
or at least carry them along together as closely as pos- 
sible without running to an extreme in either way. 
Robert is very anxious to join the boys in a game of 
ball. But he has been told for good reasons that he 
should first complete his lesson. A storm of feeling 
arises which ought to be handled with combined firm- 
ness and gentleness. Even where severe penalties must 
be applied, gentleness should offset their rigor. Here 
we have a contradiction in terms which explains the 



22 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

seriousness of the difficulty and the necessity for care- 
fulness in adjusting and combining opposites. 

Some teachers are by nature decisive; others are 
naturally gentle. Because of a predominant temper 
toward one side or the other, most persons must put 
themselves under discipline to acquire the art of bal- 
ancing virtues, of combining two such opposites in 
suitable proportion and harmony. No teacher can 
afford to be decisive who is not at the same time gentle. 
Somehow we should find a way to smooth out this con- 
flict, to obliterate this contradiction by a higher form 
of harmony. Again, there is a tendency to swing from 
one extreme to the other. Decisiveness first runs over 
into abruptness, harshness, and stubbornness; then, 
when the reaction comes, gentleness overflows into 
excess kindness and indulgence. This tendency to ex- 
tremes gives a dangerous unstability to one's manage- 
ment of children. 

Under normal conditions, the proper reaction of a 
child's behavior to the influence of teachers depends 
upon how well these seemingly contradictory elements 
are combined and put in action. Stubbornness in the 
teacher begets stubbornness in the pupil, or else a 
forced submission and a lasting resentment. On the 
other hand, too much of gentleness or concession be- 
gets waywardness and self-indulgence. A just and 
well-balanced treatment which combines firmness and 
gentleness commands respect and is certain to win out 
with the majority of children. Pestalozzi discovered 
and expressly stated that in his school at Stanz he 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 23 

could occasionally punish children severely without 
losing their affection, because his constant and pains- 
taking labor in their behalf was such a convincing proof 
of his good will toward them. 

The usual treatment of children in many homes is 
so vacillating and inconsistent that the school has a 
notable opportunity to improve upon it and to win the 
lasting gratitude of children by a stronger and kindlier 
treatment. Good government in this sense requires 
not so much main strength and autocratic will in 
teachers as a well-balanced mind and the steady spirit 
of fair dealing. Any one who will take time to be fair- 
minded, deliberate, kindly, and self-controlled, and 
will bear himself firmly and consistently toward chil- 
dren, should soon learn the art of governing a school. 
The main purpose of government is to secure justice 
and equal opportunity for all. The principle of mere 
authority has been often overstrained in school and 
State. The ruler should possess a judicially balanced 
mind which is free from haste, passion, prejudice, and 
willfulness. Only thus can he keep in smooth adjust- 
ment and combination such opposite traits of charac- 
ter as decision and gentleness. 

III. Reserve and spontaneity in our intercourse 
with children suggest another double-sidedness in our 
attitude toward them. Something of proper reserve 
and dignity toward young people is appropriate. A 
natural, quiet superiority and not too close familiar- 
ity befit the teacher. This kind of dignity puts chil- 
dren into a respectful attitude. It is simple and natu- 



24 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

ral, not priggish or affected. It is not offish and un- 
friendly. 

, On the other side, spontaneity and even impulsive- 
ness are pleasing qualities. A frank and hearty person, 
who enjoys young people and throws himself freely 
into their life and interests, easily becomes their friend 
and guide. Lifelong memories of heartiness and good 
will result from such leadership. This impulsiveness 
may sometimes show a drift toward effusiveness and 
sentiment, but in general it is a wholesome element of 
character. Dignity and reserve on one side — freedom 
and spontaneity of behavior on the other: — what is 
wanted is a teacher who can combine these opposite 
qualities into harmony and reciprocal reaction. 

It is of importance to consider how far people who 
are too impulsive, on the one side, or too reserved and 
unsocial, on the other, may consciously improve their 
disposition by thoughtful self -discipline. They might 
thus strengthen the weaker part and modify the 
stronger impulse so as to bring these contrasted quali- 
ties of human nature into union. Normal schools and 
other instrumentalities for training teachers should 
devote themselves in part to this social training. A 
young woman of social spirit teaching in a village was 
reproved by her superintendent because she partici- 
pated freely in the games of the young people in an 
evening entertainment. "Why," he said, "your con- 
duct was such that no one would have known that 
you were a teacher." Being somewhat troubled by this 
criticism, she mentioned the matter to the president 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 25 

of the school board, who was a man of discretion. His 
reply was, "Your superintendent could not have paid 
you a higher compliment." Conduct is a fine art and 
cannot be controlled by fixed rules. Individuality 
must have scope to assert itself and no two persons can 
be held to the same conduct. But the ideal of attain- 
ment for all teachers is a happy combination of these 
contrasted but equally important qualities. 

IV. Criticism and encouragement of children form 
another pair of opposites which, in proper combina- 
tion, work for efficiency. How to find the combina- 
tion is the serious problem. A good teacher is critical 
of children's faults and errors. He is perpetually on 
the alert to turn children fromiaulty ways and habits 
into right ones, from error into truth, from inattention 
and carelessness to concentration and effort. His busi- 
ness is to get after the delinquents and cause them to 
keep step. The prevailing laziness, thoughtlessness, 
and inefficiency of children at their tasks make this 
phase of his duty clearly imperative. But alas ! proper 
criticism easily shifts over into sharpness and scolding, 
and, what is worse, banter, sarcasm, and innuendo. 
The chronic scold, the carping critic, appear in the 
teacher's desk, and we have a contribution of worm- 
wood to school discipline and instruction. In time this 
spirit becomes galling, and, in extreme cases, intoler- 
able. 

On the other hand, wise teachers encourage children 
in spite of their mistakes. They are charitable toward 
errors. They overlook many minor and even serious 



26 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

faults. They are fishing for still larger game, in spite of 
dogfish and other "varmints" that get into the net. 
Many children are bashful and timid and require en- 
couragement. Even bad boys should find out that they 
have some good qualities and that the teacher has 
faith in them. 

Who is a match for these things? To be critical and 
constantly on the alert for error and carelessness and 
sham; to be at the same time encouraging, stimulat- 
ing, and charitable? Praising children too much tends 
to flattery and untruth; while criticism easily degener- 
ates into nagging. Somehow the teacher must square 
up the account and get a just equipoise between fair 
criticism and needed encouragement. He must show 
himself a fault-finder and a friend in one breath. One 
teacher of my acquaintance was popularly known as 
"the scold," and some less complimentary epithets 
were applied, because he developed and exercised his 
scolding temper. He was, in important ways, a re- 
markable teacher, and commanded respect. One good 
result that may have come from his propensity to scold 
was a strong feeling of its disagreeableness, which may 
have served his pupils as a warning against such a 
fault. A teacher who has good health and a hopeful, 
jubilant spirit in his work, so that he can be critical 
and severe at times and yet arouse his pupils to their 
best cheerful effort, has a priceless qualification. It is 
one of those higher qualifications which examinations 
are impotent to test. 

In our business we should cultivate those qualities of 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 27 

mind and temper which are likable and equally those 
which command deference and respect. Keen, cutting 
and unfair criticism by a strong teacher is one of the 
mean traits in human nature. A timid, sensitive stu- 
dent, in his weakness, has no resource against such a 
strong, dominant teacher. It is the spirit of the bully, 
who enjoys tyrannizing over the weak. Such a temper 
in the teacher deserves the keenest excoriation, the 
most unqualified reprobation. Let the teacher avoid 
extremes. Let the sharp sting of necessary criticism be 
closely followed by a hearty encouragement to renewed 
effort. Every true teacher is a mental surgeon who can 
use the knife with safety and has withal a kind heart. 

V. In the effort to combine these strong and more or 
less conflicting forces and to bring them to bear upon 
children through his own person, the teacher often 
meets with a natural but unexpected conflict. On the 
one side is the strong, aggressive character of the 
teacher, on the other, the natural reaction of the chil- 
dren. Because of the wide diversity of character and 
disposition in children and in teachers, this reaction 
may be responsive or antagonistic. When such antag- 
onisms arise out of the contact of a strong teacher with 
his pupils, very serious and unfortunate consequences 
may follow. How are these to be met? It is certainly 
necessary to bring to bear upon boys and girls the 
whole energy and personal force of this well-equipped 
master, whom we may now venture to call "the strong 
teacher." His interesting and wholesome qualities, 
reinforced by a strong will-power, make a deep impres- 



28 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

sion upon children. They appreciate the influence of 
such a person, and often submit freely to his guidance. 
As time goes on, they appropriate the master's senti- 
ments and modes of thinking and acting. This is what 
has been long prized as the molding influence of a 
strong, energetic personality upon the immature and 
receptive character of young people. This ideal of a 
vigorous character which carries influence and pro- 
duces efficiency has long been a favorite one with those 
who look for what may be called "heroic qualities" in 
the teacher. Such a man could lead high-spirited youth 
anywhere, upon the battle-field, or upon a forlorn 
hope. Such a one is strong willed and clear headed. 
He has high standards and definite notions of the 
means to be used for realizing them. He feels the full 
responsibility of his work and has a generous enthusi- 
asm for its aims. Thomas Arnold was such a leader. 
Horace Mann was another. Mary Lyon among wo- 
men, Garfield as a schoolmaster, Stonewall Jackson, 
and many others were of this heroic mold. The world 
admires this sort of person in any calling. In the edu- 
cational field such characters are preeminently desir- 
able. 

And yet this so-called strong schoolmaster does not 
fill the full measure of the all-round teacher. He may 
be accounted but half of a much larger whole which 
comprises the teacher's complete equipment and make- 
up. And the other half is more or less in distinct con- 
trast if not opposition to this. 

Just at this point, in the contact between teacher 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 29 

and child, arises a dualism of opposing forces more 
radical and comprehensive than any we have yet men- 
tioned. Before admitting the right of the educator to 
shape the character of young people according to his 
own notion, or according to the pattern of his own 
individuality, we must ask — Does the teacher fully 
appreciate these young people in the wide, rich variety 
of their disposition, character, and ability? Does he 
understand their nature well enough to tell just how it 
ought to be shaped? Has he at his disposal the variety 
and quality of influences suitable for this shaping pro- 
cess? Has he taken the measure of each child's strength 
and weakness? — his special bent and peculiarity? 
Does he really understand the nature of the clay he is 
trying to mold? These questions are entirely fair. They 
cover at least one half of the whole problem. 

At this point the teacher must face about and sub- 
ject himself to a new and very different set of tests. 
What he needs is more penetration and sympathy, 
ability to see and feel things from the boy's or girl's 
standpoint, — yes, from that of twenty or thirty differ- 
ent boys and girls of the most varied and nondescript 
personality. Many-sidedness in his ability to interpret 
and sympathize with varieties and peculiarities and 
unexpected qualities in children is first needed. Not 
how much can he impress himself upon others, but, 
first of all, how well does he appreciate and understand 
others; how clearly does he comprehend the conditions 
of human nature in children in harmony with which he 
must operate? 



30 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

From this point of view, the genuine teacher is, first 
of all, a receiver of influences, not a giver; extremely 
sensitive and susceptible of impressions from others, 
and shrewd in his power of correct interpretation. He 
is the last person in the world to imagine that he is a 
law unto himself, that his own nature is adequate to all 
emergencies. It should be remembered that the prob- 
lem lies in the child quite as much as in the teacher. If 
he is alert to take in the new situation, he will soon dis- 
cover, in any school, certain pupils having a higher 
order of natural ability in certain directions than the 
teacher himself. This suggests the need for enlarging 
his own personality far enough to take in and to appre- 
ciate the rich treasure of life with which he is entrusted. 
At any rate, he should make a liberal allowance for his 
own deficiencies and recognize a fine assortment of per- 
haps unsuspected superior abilities in the children. 
Without this sympathetic preparation for his task, no 
matter how great his strength and power, he may prove 
a mere uncouth blunderer; he may ride rough-shod 
over tender sensibilities, and do more damage than he 
will ever know how to mend. 

Here is a striking polarity in the two fundamentals 
of good schoolmastering. Two opposite and not very 
congenial virtues must be brought into terms of close 
companionship in one and the same teacher. Outgoing, 
dominant energy of will — many-sided, sympathetic 
receptivity. One must be like tempered steel for 
strength, and like wax to receive impressions. One can- 
not easily overstate the difficulty of making the right 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 31 

combination of these opposed qualities : it is setting up 
a high standard for human nature to attain. But in 
the management and training of children both these 
virtues and their close cooperation are necessary. It 
will test the best master's wisdom in full measure to 
find the right solution to this problem. 

One practical difficulty lies in the fact that we easily 
misjudge children's conduct, attributing wrong mo- 
tives to their action. One little fellow of about seven 
years had a difficulty with his teacher, an excellent and 
kindly woman. When she essayed to deal with him, he 
escaped and ran under the schoolhouse. The more 
sharply she summoned him to come out, the farther 
back he crawled. She failed in her purpose and re- 
ported to his father that the boy was extremely stub- 
born. The father naturally inquired more sympatheti- 
cally into the situation and discovered that the little 
fellow was excessively frightened. Teachers are by no 
means infallible judges of the motives and actions of 
children. 

A somewhat timid young woman of studious habit 
and quick, active intelligence entered a normal school. 
On account of some misunderstanding, one of her strong 
teachers gave her a sharp rebuke and so intimidated 
and discouraged her that she found it difficult to recite 
in his classes. Irritation at his critical, brusque treat- 
ment increased till she retired from the school. The 
teacher, himself, perhaps never knew what distress and 
misfortune his unsympathetic treatment had brought 
to a capable and earnest young woman. Such tragedies 



32 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

can be avoided by strong, vigorous teachers only by 
sympathetic insight and carefulness in dealing with 
young people. Rigorous treatment should always be 
paired with unmistakable kindliness. When teacher 
and pupil in such a conflict have become somewhat 
estranged and embittered, it is very difficult for either 
party to judge the actions of the other without preju- 
dice. An example of such a controversy between a 
strong teacher and an offended pupil came up in my 
own experience to-day. After two or three hours of 
careful meditation on my part, it was still doubtful if a 
reconciliation could be effected. 

It is a weakness of human nature as exhibited in par- 
ents and teachers to neglect, somewhat, this sympa- 
thetic attitude toward children; to take it for granted, 
in cases of disagreement, that the children are at fault 
and the parent or teacher in the right. The instinctive 
reactions of grown-up people to the conduct of children 
are frequently bad. There are several reasons why 
grown-ups should think before they act or speak in 
dealing with children. For one thing, they do not 
understand nor sympathize with children's feelings 
and ways. They have outgrown and forgotten these 
things. Their minds are preoccupied with adult inter- 
ests. Even parents often fail to get any true perspec- 
tive of a child's interests and needs, and teachers are 
lacking even in what may be termed natural parental 
solicitude. 

The almost universal tendency to apply adult stand- 
ards of judgment to children's conduct and not to take 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 33 

time or pains to get into touch with a child's needs 
and peculiarities is responsible for much unhappiness 
and failure in school and home. It is but a reasonable 
proposition that teachers first of all cultivate this 
friendly attitude, that they make a business of sensible 
child-study. A full half of one's teaching efficiency 
depends upon this willingness to forget self and to be- 
come a patient, tender-hearted learner of very simple 
things that one has forgotten, to become in spirit like a 
child. A frequent return to the life and work of Pesta- 
lozzi would teach us how completely his success de- 
pended upon this element of sympathy with children. 
Intellectual and moral training find no safe foundation 
unless this intelligent sympathy for children has been 
provided. 

Further reflection suggests that a teacher's so-called 
strong point, his particular, favorite, monopolistic vir- 
tue, if unsupported by a counter-balancing virtue, be- 
comes a vice. A strong teacher of mathematics, who 
sets up one severe standard for all children and re- 
morselessly squeezes out of the class all who do not 
reach this high standard, is a dangerous tyrant in the 
schoolroom. It is a pity, what a strong, narrow-minded 
teacher can do to injure and warp some children, to 
disregard their real abilities and try to force some other 
line of strength. A strong will, which is narrow and 
stubborn, has a tendency to set other strong wills on 
edge and even to convert them into violent hostility. 
This may lead on to a mean antagonism and a perma- 
nent embitterment. The teacher should not give the 



34 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

first offense, nor the second, in such a line of action. 
With his larger experience and more liberal knowledge, 
he should sympathetically avoid such a conflict, rather 
than foolishly precipitate it by his bigotry. The 
stronger the schoolmaster, if he is narrow and bigoted, 
the worse for at least some of his children. Unless the 
teacher takes himself severely in hand and broadens 
out his sympathies, he is apt to make sorry blunders in 
the effort to maintain and magnify what he imagines 
to be his special virtues. Unconsciously the narrow 
teacher develops a sort of dogmatic self-approval and 
presumption of superiority which is dangerously irri- 
tating to young people. 

The first duty of the teacher is to expand and enlarge 
his own limited personality so as to take in and appre- 
ciate the rich variety of character with which the boys 
and girls surround him. It is his one chance to grow 
into the larger and richer life which his duties demand. 
If he can wake up to the situation and crawl out of his 
narrower self into a broader sympathy, he will soon dis- 
cover, in any school, children who have higher forms of 
ability. This is his best chance to build out and fortify 
the weaker, neglected spots in his own character. The 
teacher is, of necessity, limited in his knowledge, but he 
should be sympathetically open to all phases and pecu- 
liarities of human nature. He is under obligation to 
encourage every child to a free and full development of 
the best points in his own character. 

The schoolmaster does not aim at profound scholar- 
ship in any study. For this he teaches too many sub- 






SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 35 

jects in too many grades, and is occupied with too 
many duties. If he has a specialty, it is not in one nar- 
row study, but rather in the variety of his acquaint- 
ance with human nature and the skill he acquires in 
adjusting himself to these variations. The best school- 
master for a village is the young man who has the wid- 
est range of proper interests and of influence among 
the young people. He is at home with boys who like 
shop- work and mechanics ; he appreciates and encour- 
ages girls and boys who have musical talents and pref- 
erence; he is awake to political discussions with those 
interested in politics; he enjoys literature and good 
novels with those who read much; with a boy devoted 
to a shotgun he can tramp on the hunt; he is enough of 
an athlete to be a hearty companion to boys on the 
ballfield; he can throw himself with zeal into scientific 
excursions and experiment; mathematical conundrums 
are his delight with boys who have a mathematical 
turn; history and biography are a favorite enthusiasm 
with him ; he can get fun and competition out of even 
grammar and spelling; he takes a kindly interest in 
queer and peculiar or freakish children, and makes 
friends with those who are offish, or morose, or unpop- 
ular. His business requires all this and his temper 
should adjust itself to his business. 

A certain young schoolmaster in Pennsylvania, John 
Meese, had this many-sided and active, participating 
attitude toward the young people in his village and 
neighborhood. So long as he remained there as a 
teacher, many young people grew up, prepared for 



36 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

college and higher schools, and went forward into use- 
ful lives in various professions and business callings. 
When he left the neighborhood, the supply of young 
people who prepared for college and higher walks of 
life seemed to drop off and finally cease. A right- 
minded teacher in a neighborhood is a discoverer. He 
is on the lookout to find boys and girls who can do 
something and who, perhaps, do not know it. They 
need a teacher who can reveal to them their own best 
qualities and possibilities, and who can encourage and 
start them out on their various appropriate lines of 
effort. Handling children in large classes, with less 
chance to observe and appreciate individuals, has a 
tendency to blind one to this broader and richer phase 
of a teacher's duty. 

VI. In school discipline another form of contradic- 
tion that taxes the resources of the teacher is the natu- 
ral opposition between the individual and the social 
whole. The teacher's management must include the 
individual children, each with his more or less peculiar 
character and disposition, and at the same time the 
whole class or school as a unit. Sometimes the indi- 
vidual pupil is so disorderly and eccentric that it is 
impossible to bring him into proper relation to the 
school program. In such case either the boy or the 
school must be sacrificed, or at least they must be 
separated. Earl, a boy of fourteen, was bent upon dis- 
turbance. He broke through the rules at once, and 
caused confusion and interfered with other children by 
lawless tricks. There was but one thing to do, to put 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 37 

him out of the room and refuse him the privileges of 
the school. It was possible in this case to isolate him 
and give him individual treatment. But he never re- 
entered the regular class-work. Every system of schools 
ought to be supplied with rooms and teachers who can 
deal with such special cases, and with smaller special 
groups. It is unjust to impose such a ruinous burden 
upon a room-teacher who has the charge of thirty or 
forty children. It upsets the order and efficiency of the 
room, worries the teacher to a frazzle, and does the 
boy himself no good. 

Apart from such extreme cases the teacher has to 
deal not only with individual children, each of peculiar 
bent and quality, but also with certain groupings and 
organizations of school spirit in classes and otherwise, 
each of which may have a distinct social character. 
Sociology has made clear to us that, where people com- 
bine and pool their minds and feelings, there appears a 
new and special form of human spirit, differing in qual- 
ity and scope from individual spirit. More recently 
our educational writers have emphasized the social 
side of training, with the idea that the child, first of all, 
must be brought into conformity to social standards so 
as to act in harmony with this powerful social spirit. 
Social adjustment has been set up as the chief aim of 
the school. The older definition of education empha- 
sized, rather, the complete, all-round development of 
the individual. Each of these points of view, when 
emphasized, tends toward one-sidedness and antag- 
onism against the other. But each view requires a full 



38 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

recognition, and the final solution lies in a very broad 
view that comprehends both in a larger unity. 

The schoolmaster should become an expert in de- 
tecting, interpreting, and organizing social school 
spirit. Children naturally associate themselves into 
groups. Only too often it becomes a group antago- 
nism against the teacher. It may, in extreme cases, 
develop into a mob spirit. Or, on the other hand, by 
sympathy and cooperation, the teacher himself may 
become the center of a harmonized social spirit which 
thoroughly organizes the work of the school. When 
once a right impulse and momentum are thus given to 
the social spirit of the school, it brings decided advan- 
tage. It carries many of the weaker and less deter- 
mined spirits along a good line of development. It also 
gives the natural social leaders among boys and girls a 
chance to assume their proper place and to exert their 
right influence. The educator should find a way to 
combine the varieties of individual spirit with social 
spirit and progress. After all, individual traits furnish 
the source from which all social organization develops. 
In the evolution of society individual peculiarity and 
freedom are quite as important as the social type. Per- 
sonal initiative, freedom of judgment, and independ- 
ence of action are the essential bases for a large part of 
the progress of society. 

The teacher's problem is to find a way of dealing 
with individuals according to their peculiar traits and 
dispositions so that they will gradually fit into the 
larger social whole. Strong and distinctive individuali- 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 39 

ties have the power to make or mar society. They 
have the independence of thought and the strength of 
character to become leaders. Properly developed they 
become the preservers of what is good and the advo- 
cates of what may become better. The growth of 
society depends upon the education of such leaders. 
Alexander Hamilton was just such a character whose 
talents were rightly directed. Aaron Burr, with almost 
equal talents, became a source of danger to society 
and the State. 

This sympathetic insight into individual disposition 
and this appreciation of social spirit in groups and 
classes are, as it were, the two wings which bear up the 
teacher in his mental flight. If either of these wings 
is clipped or disabled, he will have but an irregular and 
broken movement. The equipoise between these oppo- 
site mental attitudes gives that broader range of 
thought and feeling which insures a safe course of 
action. 

We shall have occasion to discuss this dualism again 
under the head of class instruction. 

VII. In discussing the contradictory elements and 
pairs of elements involved in school management, we 
meet, finally, a triple combination of necessary quali- 
ties which are hard to unite in school administration. 
In exercising authority over children the teacher uses 
and combines the three primary functions of govern- 
ment. He is, in his one person, the lawmaker, the 
judge, and the executive officer. This is giving large 
powers into the hands of one person. He can use his 



40 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

own judgment as to how far a child has transgressed 
his law and as to the penalty to be inflicted. He can 
proceed at once to the execution of his sentence with- 
out interference. If he is a strong teacher he can be 
very arbitrary and tyrannical. In short, he exercises 
the three different functions of government in full 
measure. It is a matter of much skill and discretion to 
combine in his one single action the strong, character- 
istic attributes that go distinctively into these three 
quite different functions. As a lawmaker, he needs the 
kind of wisdom which covers a wide knowledge of all 
the facts and conditions which we have thus far de- 
scribed as involved in his work. Only thus can he make 
laws adequate to satisfy these conditions. As a judge, 
he possesses the judicial temperament. He will show a 
fully enlightened, impartial, well-balanced mind. He 
will estimate penalties fairly. If he takes pains to be 
deliberate, fair-minded, that is, just, in his judgments, 
he is almost certain to command an increasing respect. 
Lastly, a strong, energetic will, steady and sure in its 
action, is a very necessary quality of a school ruler. If 
he has all these distinctive qualities well balanced, he 
is fitted to govern a school. To possess any one of these 
qualities in full measure is a worthy achievement. In 
modern governments, whether of City, State, or Na- 
tion, these three functions are separately exercised by 
three different sets of persons. One of the great diffi- 
culties in politics is to devise a system of government 
by which we shall be able to secure qualified specialists 
in each of these three departments. No civilized nation 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 41 

to-day permits all three of these functions to be mo- 
nopolized by one person or group of persons. But in 
the teacher, we take the risk and venture to combine 
all these high and difficult attributes in one person. He 
is called upon to work out the coordination and har- 
mony of these and of other more or less conflicting 
elements. This constitutes the peculiar difficulty or 
problem that attaches to disciplinary and administra- 
tive work in education. 

From this discussion of school management we may 
draw certain conclusions : — 

1. By an examination of these various conflicts we 
find that the teacher must take a deep look into his 
own nature, and into that of the child. It involves 
reflective self-examination and penetrating, sym- 
pathetic, objective observation of children. He 
finds that he is subject to the very laws which he 
attempts to apply to children. Only he must have 
fully learned the lesson before he can apply it freshly 
to those now caught in the crude process of learning. 

2. The points of special difficulty in school manage- 
ment appear at those junctures where two opposing 
principles threaten to produce conflict. At these 
junctures the teacher must take time to acquire a 
broader, more constructive view which not only 
dissolves the conflict, but, by the union of these 
forces, gets the full benefit of their combined 
strength. 

3. He is usually accounted a strong teacher who is 
sufficiently large-minded and many-sided and well 



42 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

balanced to combine these various pairs of conflict- 
ing elements into the unity of his own personal life. 
Thus equipped, he sets out confidently with the 
purpose of molding the character of the young 
through his personal influence. 

4. Yet this so-called strong teacher, with his positive 
and aggressive personality, meets the child with his 
impulses, disposition, and habits. Unexpected 
results follow and a new and still more difficult 
problem arises. If conflict is to be avoided and 
cooperation with children along right lines gained, 
it will be necessary first of all to get into sympa- 
thetic relation to them, and to organize the whole 
campaign of education with reference to their na- 
ture and peculiarities. 

5. The school itself is a society, and has for its solution 
that fundamental problem of all society — child 
versus the social whole. On the one side, the train- 
ing of the child into service and subordination to 
social needs, and on the other, the duty of society 
toward the child, to give him freedom and oppor- 
tunity for self-realization. Child and society must 
be brought into proper mutual adjustment to the 
equal advantage of all. 

6. All these problems culminate in the problem of 
government, with its triple array of those primary 
qualifications which are to be coordinated and or- 
ganized into the unity and balanced strength of the 
teacher's character. 

7. The problem of the school is the problem of the 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 43 

home, of the local community, of the State, of 
the Nation, and of international cooperation. The 
school is trying to work out the fundamental prob- 
lem of social organization. 

In the previous discussion, we have made use of 
occasional illustrations to give a more concrete and 
experimental basis for our argument. It would be pos- 
sible to enlarge indefinitely this phase of the treatment. 
For this purpose the whole field of experience could be 
drawn upon. The theory of contrasts and contradic- 
tions requires to be illustrated from many points of 
vantage in schoolroom practice. The difficulty of com- 
bining these contrasted principles and successful 
modes of doing this can be much more completely 
illustrated. We can all reproduce in memory the dis- 
tinctive qualities of those teachers who have taught 
us in childhood and youth, as well as those known to us 
in later years. How many well-balanced teachers can 
we recall who combined in good proportion such dis- 
crepant qualities as critical keenness and kindly en- 
couragement, severe firmness combined with gentle- 
ness, genuine seriousness and gayety or humor, firm 
dignity and kindly familiarity, strong self-respect or 
egoism and humility, a dominating will and many- 
sided sympathy and appreciation? In how many cases 
do we find that those who were accounted strong 
teachers were strong in one quality and weak in its 
counterpart, and therefore one-sided? We may dis- 
cover that human nature in teachers tends to a pre- 



44 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

ponderance of one strong quality rather than to a bal- 
ancing of several pairs of antipodal virtues. Our own 
daily experience in the schoolroom offers us frequent 
opportunity to test out the ways of combining such 
opposites as helpfulness and self-help, control and 
freedom, reserve and spontaneity, seriousness and 
humor, etc. 

In this connection, biography and good novels fur- 
nish abundant illustrations of wise and unwise modes 
of treating children. The Autobiography of Franklin 
and of John Stuart Mill, Dickens's novels, Jane Eyre, 
School-Days at Rugby, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Ger- 
trude, Jean Mitchell's School, the Hoosier Schoolmaster, 
are illustrations. 

A few of the famous schoolmasters who embodied 
the principles set forth in the foregoing discussion are 
briefly described as follows : — 

Among famous teachers, Fenelon, the author of 
Telemaque, illustrates the combination of opposing 
elements that enter into the make-up of a strong 
teacher. He was one of the great Frenchmen of his 
time, 1651-1715. 

Suddenly he was called to the responsible position of pre- 
ceptor of the dauphin's son, the young Duke of Burgundy. . . . 
No man probably was ever better fitted than Fenelon for the 
difficult position which he now assumed, and to which he 
mainly devoted himself during the next six years (1689-95). 
He was a born teacher in the highest sense, — gifted with the 
most charming qualities of patience, sweetness of temper, 
tact, and address, yet inflexible in principle, and severe and 
unbending in his methods of training. He had the manners of 
a grand seigneur, with all the intellectual refinements of an 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 45 

accomplished churchman. Saint-Simon in his Memoires has 
left a portrait of him about this time which has often been 
quoted, and from which we extract only a few sentences. "He 
was a tall thin man, well made, pale, with a large nose, eyes 
whence fire and talent streamed like a torrent, and a physiog- 
nomy the like of which I have never seen in any other man, 
and which once seen one could never forget. It combined 
everything, and the greatest contradictions produced no 
want of harmony. It united seriousness and gayety , gravity, 
and courtesy — the prevailing characteristic, as in every- 
thing about him, being refinement, intellect, gracefulness, 
modesty, and above all noblesse. It was difficult to take one's 
eyes off him. All his portraits are speaking, and yet none of 
them have caught the exquisite harmony which struck one 
in the original, or the exceeding delicacy of every feature. 
His manner altogether corresponded to his appearance; his 
perfect ease was infectious to others, and his conversation 
was stamped with the grace and good taste which are only 
acquired by habitual intercourse with the best society and 
the great world." He had need of all his brilliant and solid 
qualities in the task which he had undertaken. The young 
Duke of Burgundy, as the same writer remarks, "was born 
with a naturel which made one tremble. He was so passionate 
that he would break the clocks which summoned him to some 
unwelcome duty, and fly into the wildest rage with the rain 
which hindered some pleasure." He was withal warm-hearted 
and clever, — in fact, "dangerously quick in penetrating 
both things and people." Fenelon had full scope for the exer- 
cise of his marvelous educational art, and the result was a 
success far beyond what is usual in such cases. The impetu- 
ous but affectionate and bright child grew under his charge 
into an earnest, well-disciplined, and promising, if somewhat 
over-scrupulous and timid youth, whose life, if spared, might 
have brought blessing to France. 1 

If such a remarkable skill and personality were re- 
quired to train one boy successfully, we are tempted 
to inquire what qualities are needed in a teacher of 
forty children? 

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica. 



46 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

Vittorino da Feltre, the most distinguished Italian 
schoolmaster of the fifteenth century, for many years 
at the head of the school La Giocosa near Mantua, was 
notable for his gentleness and firmness. 

Vittorino definitely held himself the father of his scholars. 
It was with him no formal claim. His school entirely absorbed 
him. He watched the youngest with affection and hope, the 
elders with pride and confidence. Himself moving always 
amid the larger things of life, the power that went forth from 
him insensibly raised the tone of thought and motive in those 
around him. His singleness of purpose was quickly felt, and a 
word or even a glance of disapproval was, with the keenly 
sensitive Italian youth, often sufficient to bring tears of 
shame and repentance to the eyes of a culprit. Living a com- 
mon life with his scholars in meals, in games, in excursions, 
always sharing their interests and pleasures, his control over 
the sixty or seventy boys under his charge was such that 
harsh punishments were not needed. Naturally quick-tem- 
pered, he had schooled himself to a self-control which never 
gave way except in face of irreverence or looseness. Corporal 
punishment was very seldom resorted to, and then only after 
deliberation, and as the alternative to expulsion. For ill- 
prepared work the penalty imposed was the compulsory re- 
learning of the task after school hours. But it was part of 
Vittorino's purpose to attract rather than to drive, and to 
respect the dignity and the freedom of his boys. So he re- 
fused, after fair trial made, to force learning upon an unwill- 
ing scholar, holding that nature had not endowed all with 
taste or capacity for study. It is characteristic of the time 
that Vittorino could appeal with confidence to the personal 
and family distinction conferred by excellence in the study of 
Letters. It was a motive to which most youths of spirit eag- 
erly responded. 1 

A study of the life of Thomas Arnold will show a 
similar combination of strength and power of person- 
ality with gentleness and affection. 

1 Woodward, Vittorino da Feltre, and other Humanist Educators. 



SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 47 

Horace Mann also in his work as a teacher shows 
that inflexibility of purpose combined with personal 
charm and absorption into the lives and interests of 
students that gave him strong influence over the 
young. 



CHAPTER III 

INSTRUCTION — LOGICAL CONTINUITY AND CROSS 
LINES IN THINKING 

In dealing with an important topic in classroom 
work, the thought movements necessary to a mastery 
of the materials of knowledge often run counter to 
each other and produce antagonisms. 

These interfering thought waves, however, are nec- 
essary stages in the process of mastering and organiz- 
ing complex topics. One phase of this inevitable dual- 
ism in thinking processes can be expressed by a dia- 
gram. It shows in a crude way the two opposing 
thought impulses which play across each other, at 
right angles, in treating any important topic. 

This diagram suggests, first, 

— — a strong fundamental thought 

— — movement through a series 
of main topics or subheads, 

— — shown by the heavy lines or 
segments; and second, lateral 
movements or side issues 

— — reaching out at right angles 

— — from the main segments, and 
expressed by numerous lines 
stretching out to the right 

— — and left. This diagram im- 
plies an inherent and ines- 




INSTRUCTION 49 

capable dualism, which is grounded in the very 
structure of thinking. We must think backwards and 
forwards along the main line and also to the right and 
left in order to keep our balance. We require a double 
flexibility and range in our thinking. 

The physical organism suggests a similar flexibility 
in seeing. The eyes are not fixed in the head, so as to 
see only straight forward, like a horse with blinkers, 
but they can be turned to the right or left or up and 
down so as to take in a wider range of objects. The 
head, also, is set on a pivot so as to turn easily and still 
further increase the range of vision. The mind does 
not and should not stick to a straight line. It must be 
flexible so as to take in a wide range of objects. It must 
even focus attention at times to the right or left, with 
seeming negligence of the main issue. It may be neces- 
sary to check the main line of advance in order to get 
time to make more or less extended excursions to the 
right or left. This brings us to the point of antagonism 
where the lines of thought cross each other, as it were, 
at right angles. One, in turn, must give way to the 
other, because they cannot both operate at the same 
instant. 

The process of weaving cloth suggests another anal- 
ogy to our processes of thinking. In weaving, the 
threads run in two directions at right angles, and the 
loom is a device for intertwining these two crossing 
sets of threads. Thinking, also, projects main lines of 
thought and then plays back and forth across these 
main lines with another series of thought relations. 



50 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

The above diagram suggests, first, a strong series of 
connected sub-units which give the logical outline of a 
complete whole or unit of study; second, other lateral 
lines of thought which radiate from the sub-units as 
centers. For illustration, if we were studying such a 
topic as "The Government Reclamation of Arid Lands 
by Irrigation Projects," we might lay out the series of 
important sub-topics as follows : — 

1. The general physical survey of the Salt River Irrigation 
Project in Arizona. 

2. The building of the Roosevelt Dam. Forming a lake 
twenty-five miles long. 

3. The diversion dam and canals for distributing the water 
to the lands involved (160,000 acres). 

4. Effects of this irrigation upon agriculture, in products, 
farms, villages, settlements, etc. 

5. The Government regulations for division of lands among 
settlers. 

6. Brief description of other similar projects, such as the 
Truckee and Carson project in Nevada and the Shoshone 
project in Idaho. Comparison of these three projects, 
results, etc. 

7. Map study to show location and number of the large irri- 
gation projects of the United States Government through- 
out the West. 

8. Extent of private irrigation schemes and comparison with 
Government works. Increased wealth of the arid regions 
due to irrigation. 

9. Irrigation in Mexico and other countries. 

This series of sub-topics gives us a fundamental 
logical thought movement which develops into a com- 
prehensive survey of an important field of knowledge 
as embraced in this unit of study. But each of these 
sub-topics is in turn a center from which we branch out 
to gather in facts and knowledge materials to be organ- 



INSTRUCTION 51 

ized in relation to this center. Topic 2, for example, 
"The Building of the Roosevelt Dam," runs as fol- 
lows in its full treatment: — 

At the point where the Government decided to build the 
dam, the river had cut down into the rocks, making a deep, 
narrow canon with high walls. Here the Roosevelt Dam 
was to be built, 240 feet high and 700 feet long, across the 
narrow gorge. One can, perhaps, imagine how strong and 
solid such a dam must be built to hold back the waters of a 
lake so deep and long. It must be laid deep in the solid rock 
and built with such a broad base and thick walls that nothing 
could undermine or break it down. 

In order to bring the tools and materials to this spot in the 
mountains it was necessary to construct a paved road from 
Phoenix through a very broken and rugged country. The 
cities of Phcenix, Tempe, and Mesa contributed $75,000 to 
the construction of this fine mountain road. The Apache and 
other Indian tribes of Arizona furnished an excellent body of 
workmen for the construction of this road. 

In the neighborhood of the dam were found the rock and 
cement necessary for the construction. This saved the ex- 
pense of hauling these heavy materials long distances. Here 
was built by the Government a large mill for the production 
of concrete to be used in the construction of the great dam. 
On the slopes of the neighboring mountains were found ex- 
tensive forests. Much lumber was needed in the scaffolding 
for the building of the dam and the Government set up two 
large sawmills to convert the logs into lumber. In the river 
near the dam was developed an electric plant of some ten 
thousand horse-power which was used in mixing and hand- 
ling the cement and constructing the dam. The water-power 
of the river was, therefore, chiefly used for building the dam 
which checked the river in its course and caused it to form 
the lake. 

With the completion of the dam a lake twenty-five miles 
long is formed in the season of floods, and the water thus 
held in reserve may be used lower down the valley during the 
dry months of summer. 



52 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

All the other topics of the main series are treated 
with similar fullness. By this expansive treatment of 
each of the sub-topics, we halt, for the time being, the 
forward movement of thought along the main line, and 
permit ourselves to digress into the side lines, for a col- 
lection and grouping of interesting and necessary 
material around each sub-topic. There is danger, in- 
deed, that, because of the richness and interest of the 
materials, we may digress too far and may lose sight of 
our fundamental thought movement. That the two 
lines of thought are somewhat contradictory is proved 
by the fact that an over-emphasis of the one tends to 
obliterate the other. A not uncommon fault, for exam- 
ple, is that of becoming so much interested in the sub- 
ordinate side line as to lose connection with the main 
argument. 

We will next take up each of these oppositional 
thought movements and discuss it more fully. 

I. In dealing with any well-rounded unit of study, 
it is commonly agreed that one should follow a close 
sequence in thinking. This sequence is developed 
through a succession of leading steps or sub-topics in 
the argument. In these sub-topics the essential fea- 
tures of the thought culminate or stand out promi- 
nently. This demand for a well-organized series of 
closely related yet distinctive topics gives a high stand- 
ard of thinking. To bring this kind of organization 
into a large, complex unit of study requires strong 
intellectual effort and well-balanced judgment in hold- 
ing to a close causal or logical sequence. It demands 



INSTRUCTION 53 

careful estimating of values, selecting and grouping of 
facts, so as to bring the essentials into prominence. 
Good instruction will hold to this central line of argu- 
ment. It will not be jumping the track and wandering 
off into uncertain and unrelated fields. The task of 
concentrating the mind upon the main steps in the 
argument is imperative. In our time looseness and 
diffusion of thought have become a chronic fault. 

We have been multiplying studies and accumulating 
an endless variety of knowledge materials. But teach- 
ers have not developed much original power of organi- 
zation along fundamental thought lines. What organ- 
ization we have has been imposed upon teachers and 
pupils alike by the textbook. The textbook organiza- 
tion has usually been accepted as authoritative. In 
some studies it is good, in others the textbook organ- 
ization has been poor, as in elementary science, in 
much of history and geography; and teachers have 
formed bad habits by following bad examples. Of late, 
there has been improvement in this regard. 

In some subjects, teachers engage in loose conversa- 
tions and wander about more or less aimlessly among 
facts and fancies. They lose sight of fundamental con- 
trols, i.e., strong serial lines of thought. The impulse 
to correlate a topic with everything and to follow up 
chance interests and associations has produced in some 
quarters a wandering and inconstant spirit in class- 
room instruction which travels to the world's end in 
search of novelties. 

One of the most difficult and unusual undertakings 



54 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

for even experienced teachers is to organize well a new 
and complex subject broad in scope and rich in variety 
of new materials. To select the controlling idea for an 
entire unit of study and to follow this up with a strong 
series of closely related sub-topics for the same, calls 
for the sharpest kind of thinking. It requires a keen 
perception in picking out from a mass of materials the 
pivotal points in the argument, and second, a logical 
mind to arrange these points into a necessary and con- 
vincing sequence. Very few even of the most experi- 
enced and capable teachers have acquired this peculiar 
kind of ability; for our textbook methods of teaching 
throughout do not lead up to the acquisition of this 
kind of power. Our writers on education give us few 
or no examples of it taken from regular school topics. 
The thing which it has been assumed any one can do if 
he will only try, is the thing that no one as yet has been 
bold enough to attempt. The truth of the above state- 
ment may not appear as yet, but will be more appar- 
ent when we have dealt with the second element in our 
contradiction. 

The peculiar problem of our time is furnished by an 
over-accumulation of miscellaneous materials which 
now await the fashioning mind of the organizer who 
realizes the full value of a few ideas as centers of or- 
ganization, or better of growing ideas as furnishing the 
main lines of organization. 

II. Now for the other side of this contradiction. 
While following this main line of thought, the mind 
also plays back and forth at right angles to it, and 



INSTRUCTION 55 

directly athwart its main current, weaving a web of 
necessary associations and cross-connections. This 
second cross-fire of thought is quite as fundamental to 
sound thinking as the main sequence or logical devel- 
opment. It alone can give proper breadth and balance 
to one's reasoning. Heretofore it has not been so con- 
sidered. Each important point or sub-topic becomes a 
smaller center of organization. We understand a fact 
when we see clearly its causal and vital relations to 
other important things not involved in the main logical 
sequence of thought. The study of a topic in its whole 
environment, i.e., in its various side bearings, is the 
only feasible way of getting at its real meaning. Much 
of our best thinking runs into these outward excursions 
from a central sub-topic into the surrounding world. 
Otherwise we fail to balance it up in its proper adjust- 
ment to life conditions. As in a great railroad system, 
the tributary branch lines, in the aggregate, may be 
quite as important in their service as the trunk line. 
Indeed, they largely supply the main line with traffic. 
Demonstrations of this truth are needed. 

In discussing the harbor of a seaport city like New 
York, for example, the simple fact that New York 
has a safe, deep, and commodious harbor is the funda- 
mental thing, and little more than this is mentioned in 
our textbooks. But this is not adequate for teaching 
purposes. It is too narrow in scope. Really to under- 
stand the harbor of New York City, as the focal center 
into which is gathered half of the foreign commerce of 
the United States, it will be necessary to branch out in 



56 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

several directions into a much broader, richer, descrip- 
tive treatment of the subject. This enlargement of the 
topic to include a fuller background of concrete facts 
upon which to base a real understanding would reach 
out somewhat as follows : — 

1. Maps showing the local physical character and surround- 
ings, the lower and upper bays, the rivers, the hills, the 
islands, the location of New York City, Brooklyn, Jersey 
City, etc. A concrete bird's-eye view is thus gained of the 
whole situation. 

2. The present location and extent of wharfage along the 
shore-lines of rivers and bays, the local distribution of 
coastwise and foreign shipping. Locate on the map the 
wharves of a few of the great steamship lines, as the 
North German Lloyd at Hoboken; the White Star Line; 
the Providence and Fall River Line on the east shore of 
the Hudson. 

3. The variety of shipping, ocean liners, river steamboats, 
sailing craft, ferryboats, tugs and lighters, yachts, war- 
vessels, and navy yards; shipping docks with the machine 
equipments, warehouses, and merchandise; a series of 
harbor pictures is essential. 

4. Improvements in the harbor: size and construction of 
docks; dredging out the entrances; blowing up the rocks 
at Hell Gate; lighthouses, buoys; the pilot service; ex- 
pense in such improvements. 

5. Forts for the protection of the city and harbor from pos- 
sible foreign attack : location of chief batteries at the Nar- 
rows, on Sandy Hook, etc. 

6. The emigration office and Ellis Island; quarantine sta- 
tion; the influx of foreigners; summer travel; picture of 
loaded steamers and of Ellis Island. 

7. Sights in the harbor: Governor's Island; the Statue of 
Liberty; the great bridges; views of the city from the deck 
of incoming vessels; amusement resorts and bathing- 
stations along the shores. 

8. The custom house, customs officers and their examina- 
tion of goods; smuggling; revenue cutters; control by the 
National Government. 



INSTRUCTION 57 

9. The harbor in relation to inland traffic by water and by 
rail; railroad stations and relation to harbor, docks, etc.; 
concentration of great traffic lines at New York. 

The vast majority of inland children have no ade- 
quate notion of such a seaport and harbor, one of the 
most important centers and types of human activity 
in the world to-day. By carefully picturing and under- 
standing one such harbor, they may soon learn to inter- 
pret other large seaports in the United States and in 
other lands. 

Is it worth while, once in our lives, to appreciate in a 
lively fashion the sights and activities presented in 
such a world-harbor? If so, we must take time to view 
it in these various aspects, to get the full setting of the 
idea. We must halt in our journey long enough to make 
a series of excursions which give us concretely, from 
various points of view, the essential aspects of our 
topic. Any really important idea demands such a 
treatment. 

The second stage in handling a big topic like New 
York harbor should involve comparisons. The harbors 
of the cities along the Atlantic Coast should be briefly 
shown by local maps and descriptions, and their ad- 
vantages and disadvantages as compared with New 
York made clear. Boston also has a large harbor, but 
not so deep nor so commodious as that of New York, 
and not so favorably located for Western inland 
trade. Philadelphia has a limited river-harbor, and its 
entrance-way up the Delaware is too shallow for the 
largest vessels. Norfolk on the Chesapeake has a spa- 



58 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

cious entrance and harbor, but less favorable connec- 
tions landward, and across the mountains. Charleston 
and Savannah, like New York, have dredged channels. 
In the harbors of Southern cities these channels are 
protected by rock jetties, leading from the open sea 
into the harbors. New Orleans had great difficulty in 
getting large ships to the docks because of the shallow 
mud-bars at the delta outlets of the Mississippi, till 
Captain Eads produced a deep channel with his wise 
scheme of willow-mattress jetties. This opens the 
whole Mississippi Valley to foreign trade at New Or- 
leans. San Francisco has a harbor entrance and a great 
bay that rivals New York City's advantages. It has 
also important connections with the hinterland, though 
not so good as New York's. The Puget Sound cities 
also have deep salt-water harbors and a world traffic. 
On the Great Lakes, Chicago has produced an artifi- 
cial harbor and plans extensive harbor improvements. 
Duluth has a land-locked harbor that will rival the 
harbors of seaboard cities, while Milwaukee, Cleveland, 
Detroit, and Buffalo have important harbor advan- 
tages, partly natural, partly artificial. The relative im- 
portance of our great seaport, river, and lake cities is 
based in large part upon the harbor facilities they 
have been able to provide. European and other cities 
may be later drawn into this comparative survey, as 
Liverpool, Hamburg, Antwerp, etc. Full harbor maps 
should be shown. 

The habit of making such comparisons in the second 
stage of the treatment of large topics is growing upon 



INSTRUCTION 59 

us. It is a surprisingly efficient means for the organiza- 
tion of rich and varied materials. This comparative 
thinking is also an excellent training of judgment, of 
how to estimate values. It, moreover, extends the 
range of important facts organized under one idea or 
topic. It brings out clearly the power of one significant 
idea in interpreting a long series of important facts 
which are thus brought together and organized into 
unity of thought. It is just in this way that we come 
to an appreciation of those fundamental ideas which 
are now operative on a large scale in organizing the 
industries, and in the social-political activities of the 
world. The failure to make such comparisons is due 
to an unwillingness to spend time in branching out at 
right angles to the main line of thought in a series of 
topics. Comparisons are based upon similarity and 
contrast, and they call for an outward movement of 
thought crosswise to the main series of topics. This is 
further illustrated by the fact that the harbor of New 
York is merely one topic in the main series on New 
York City. 

Other topics in this large unit of study which permit 
this same mode of treatment by full description and 
extended comparison are as follows : — 

1. Foreign and domestic or inland commerce centering in 
New York. 

2. The water supply and sewer system; aqueducts; reser- 
voirs. 

3. Sanitary improvements; cleaning the streets; the park 
system; hospitals, etc. 

4. Manufacturing. 



60 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

5. The rapid transit systems. 

6. The population, races and language, and immigration. 

7. Education; schools and colleges. 

8. Government. 



Each of these topics admits of a treatment similar 
in the two stages to that of New York Harbor: (1) The 
stage of concrete amplification. (2) The broader 
comparisons with other cities along similar lines. In 
brief, each sub-topic in such a complete unit of study 
admits of this enlargement at the two important stages 
of its treatment. Much of the best teaching and think- 
ing is found in these outward excursions, by means of 
comparisons, from a central topic into the concrete 
environment and into the more distant world beyond. 

In every important unit of study, therefore, we must 
learn to set up a strong logical series of sub-topics, each 
of which is a smaller center of organization. In such a 
series, each sub-topic holds a close relation to the topic 
that precedes and to that which follows. This requires 
a masterly grasp of the sequence of thought, stretching 
through the whole length of the unit of study, as we 
may say, longitudinally. 

To this we may add, secondly, the cross-sectional 
thinking illustrated by the example of New York. To 
many persons this second mode of thought, branching 
off at right angles from the main line, seems to be a 
divergence from sound, logical thinking. The two 
modes of thought are in fact oppositional, and it takes 
a stronger mental effort to combine them properly than 
to follow one exclusively or chiefly. Scholarly thinkers 



INSTRUCTION 61 

sometimes make the mistake of accepting one of these 
as predominant. Besides, teachers, like other people, 
are sluggish and indolent in their thinking, and think 
in too narrow circles. Or it may be said more charitably 
that people follow habits of thought, and the more 
common habit, even with careful thinkers, is that of a 
narrow logical sequence. Many people, in fact, pride 
themselves upon a clear and rigid line of argumenta- 
tion like that illustrated by the "Wonderful One Horse 
Shay." But no fact or topic is comprehended in its 
meaning by following a single important relation to 
the next topic. The important principles and facts are 
those which have numerous and far-reaching connec- 
tions. This many-sidedness of relationship is what 
gives them their importance. In this sense they are 
central topics embodying the big, comprehensive, uni- 
fying principles that give simple, far-reaching inter- 
pretations of the world. 

A serious fault of our habits of study is the fact that 
we have too many things to learn, and but little time 
to think, that is, to reflect in wider circles upon these 
relations. In school-work we should spend at least half 
our time in reflection. What matters it whether we 
have memorized the numerous facts and details cata- 
logued so uninterestingly in our books? Rather, let us 
ask, have we looked into the meanings and significant 
relations of the few central topics most deserving of 
study? Have we thought out our topics strongly in the 
two directions illustrated above? 

Our best thinking combines these two divergent 



62 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

modes of thought, the steady and consistent develop- 
ment of the main line of mental effort, and the con- 
stant enrichment of this central idea with concrete 
illustrations and comparisons drawn from the side 
lines. The student should never lose sight of his main 
line of thought, nor should his thinking be closely con- 
fined to this single strand. The tendency to continuity 
of thought should be balanced by an equally strong 
effort to find a larger setting for the main thought in all 
its fruitful bearings upon the world. Otherwise it hangs 
in isolation without proper relation to complex world 
realities. These two opposing thought impulses should 
be brought into cooperation in a manner analogous to 
the operation of the centripetal and centrifugal forces 
which combine their influence in such a way as to 
bring the earth and planets into their steady orbits. 

From the point of view of not combining these op- 
posing tendencies into a larger unity, three forms of 
error come to light: (1) Some persons are strong and 
thorough in the main channels of thought, but they 
think within too narrow boundaries and fail to enjoy 
the broader, richer interpretation of their ideas. Their 
thoughts are apt to hang in theoretical isolation be- 
cause they are not connected up sufficiently with the 
world of realities. (2) Others scatter too widely in their 
thought relations and fail to organize firmly upon the 
central line of topics. This results in a wandering loose- 
ness and promiscuousness in study. The materials of 
knowledge are not properly knit together and inter- 
preted clearly in the light of important vital truths. 



INSTRUCTION 63 

Both these tendencies are one-sided and fail to har- 
monize the opposing principles. 

The third rather common fault is to emphasize 
neither central organizing ideas, nor correlations, but 
to memorize a multitude of facts more or less miscella- 
neous and poorly interpreted. Our overcrowded course 
of study favors this third tendency. 

It requires pronounced organizing ability to treat 
studies with adequate appreciation and unification of 
the two modes of thought. Much more time must be 
given to reflective thinking if we are to form habits of 
tracing out these antithetical relations. To keep the 
mind in balance between the two movements, properly 
to alternate them and thus to weave a firmer web of 
knowledge, is a great achievement. Gradually to form 
such habits of thought in children, both modes of 
thinking should be cultivated in the leading branches 
of knowledge. 

If the foregoing argument as to the interplay of two 
divergent but necessarily cooperating thought move- 
ments is correct, we can lay down a basal principle of 
instruction in dealing with large topics. The process of 
working out a large topic on the basis of a fundamental 
idea becomes the most general determining principle of 
method. For ourselves we believe it possible to demon- 
strate this mode of treatment of large topics in most 
of the important school studies, namely, in history, 
natural science, language, geography, and the indus- 
trial arts (i.e., construction in the arts). In the main, 
the treatment of units of literature (reading and gram- 



64 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

mar) has the same basis. The processes in arithmetic, 
like that of long division, follow a similar but modified 
process. 

There are two reasons, perhaps, why this mode of 
treatment of large topics has not been recognized or 
more generally applied: (1) We have not been accus- 
tomed to grant important ideas and principles their 
proper and legitimate place in furnishing the organiz- 
ing centers and trunk lines of thought. (2) We have 
not seriously attacked the problem of determining the 
conditions under which these important ideas originate 
in the mind and develop to their full fruition. How 
much illustrative and descriptive material is it neces- 
sary to group around such an idea in order to bring it 
into the right illumination? How much more of com- 
parison and amplification of this idea is required to 
show the range of its application? The writers on gen- 
eral principles of education stop short with the state- 
ment of their principles. They never attempt to deal 
with the subject-matter of any topic in science, or his- 
tory, or geography, so as to furnish an answer to these 
two great questions. They do not seem to have discov- 
ered that these are two very important questions, which 
set up a problem far more difficult to solve than the 
problem of merely stating the general principles as 
they are usually propounded. They ought to demon- 
strate their principles concretely. 

In selecting and organizing the varied and complex 
materials that belong properly in the treatment of a 
large topic, the thinker must take a broad survey of 



INSTRUCTION 65 

the main line of thought, properly broken up into its 
chief segments. At the same time he must think out 
crosswise along the side lines, and gather in the appro- 
priate concrete material which alone can give a true 
setting for the central idea. To keep these two neces- 
sary but opposing tendencies of thought in balance is 
the difficult thing. This kind of organization of sub- 
ject-matter is therefore very special and unusual. 

It must be admitted that in setting up this standard 
of organization we are demanding a thoroughness and 
richness of knowledge which few teachers at present 
possess. But it is the kind of knowledge that they 
ought to have if they are to teach. Nor is it at all im- 
possible or unreasonable that teachers should be thus 
trained in the professional schools for the preparation 
of teachers. 

In this connection a convincing argument is fur- 
nished in favor of complete and rich scholarship. In 
fact, for teaching, a peculiar kind of richness and reflec- 
tive quality in scholarship is required which even our 
higher schools often fail to furnish. The principles and 
practical maxims of pedagogy are helpless unless they 
are supported at every point by a copious and well- 
organized body of usable knowledge. Even writers on 
education should never forget that their theories, be 
they never so good, need to be backed up by a whole 
well-organized army of knowledge materials. 

The following treatment of the Erie Canal illus- 
trates more fully the interplay of these two thought 
movements in a large topic. 



66 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

THE ERIE CANAL 

Outline of topics 

1. The opening up of central New York at the close of the 
Revolution. 

2. The growth of the canal idea and arguments in its favor. 

3. Route to be followed by the proposed canal, size, etc. 

4. The canal construction and its difficult problems. 

5. Completion of the canal and the celebration that fol- 
lowed. 

6. Important and far-reaching results. 

7. Other traffic routes across the mountains. The old Na- 
tional Road. Canals and portage road in Pennsylvania. 

8. Railroad building and the New York Central Railroad. 

9. First enlargement of the canal. 

10. The present reconstruction of the canal as a barge-canal. 

11. Comparison with the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and 
the Ohio canals. 

1. Even before the Revolution people had thought of the 
possibility of opening up a waterway across New York, from 
the Hudson to the Lakes, but nothing could be done in the 
way of roads or canals while the Indians held central New 
York. Sullivan's expedition into the Iroquois country during 
the Revolution (1779) had broken up the powerful Indian 
confederacy which for two centuries or more had controlled 
central New York. 

At the close of the Revolution, then, white settlers were 
free to push over hills, valleys, lake regions, and swamps of 
central New York as far as Lake Erie. Along this line from 
Albany to Buffalo were to be laid out the roads which would 
connect the East and the West; for along this route, alone, 
there were no hills to climb. 

After the Revolutionary War a wagon-road was built 
across the country from Albany to Buffalo, but it was a long 
and tedious haul over bad roads, through woods and swamps, 
so that it cost about one hundred dollars to get a ton of 
wares from New York to Buffalo. 

2. The project of building a canal from Buffalo to Albany 
was early suggested. Gouverneur Morris argued that as 



INSTRUCTION 67 

Lake Erie is 570 feet higher than tidewater at Albany, it 
would be possible to dig a channel and convey a stream that 
would carry boats directly to the Hudson. DeWitt Clinton, 
afterward governor, was an enthusiastic advocate of such a 
canal, and he, with others, had surveys made and formed 
plans. But the undertaking was too difficult and expensive 
for private individuals. Only a large State like New York 
could supply the money necessary for such an undertaking. 
Finally DeWitt Clinton presented the matter to the Legisla- 
ture of New York in 1816. Some of his arguments were as 
follows : — 

Such a canal would greatly cheapen the transport of goods 
from Buffalo to New York. This would make New York City 
the outlet for goods coming from the Lakes and the Ohio 
country, and in this way it would rapidly grow into a great 
city. 

Again, New York State was fortunate in having the only 
route between the East and West where there were no moun- 
tains to climb as in Pennsylvania and other States farther 
south. It was the only place where a canal could be built. 

The shipment of goods down Lake Ontario and the St. 
Lawrence would only injure New York State, and besides, 
the St. Lawrence was blocked with ice during a long winter. 

The country through which the canal would pass was a rich 
and fruitful region, and with a good canal for shipment it 
would settle up rapidly and become very prosperous. 

The canal itself could be easily supplied with water from 
Lake Erie, and the boating along the canal would be much 
safer, being free from the winds and storms which prevail on 
the Lakes and on the ocean. 

A pair of horses or mules could haul a great canal boat 
loaded with goods along the canal at the rate of thirty miles 
per day, and that would be very cheap and rapid compared 
with any other kind of shipping. 

After much discussion these arguments won the day, and 
the legislature voted to undertake the construction of the 
canal at State expense. 

3. The canal was to be dug along the Mohawk Valley, then 
across New York north of the Finger Lakes, not far south of 
Lake Ontario, to Buffalo. The main canal was divided into 
three sections, the western part from Lake Erie to the Seneca 



68 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

River, the middle from Seneca River to Rome, and the east- 
ern section from Rome to the Hudson at Albany; in all, 360 
miles. It was to be four feet deep, forty feet wide at the top, 
and twenty-eight feet wide at the bottom. The sloping sides 
were to be walled with stone. 

4. The first contracts for digging were let in the spring of 
1817. The farmers along the route had been engaged to do 
the work, at first with spades and wheelbarrows, but this was 
too slow, so scrapers were invented to be used with teams of 
oxen. This made the work go much faster. Money was scarce 
among the farmers, and they were glad to engage in the work 
to get money for their needs. 

A number of serious difficulties hindered the progress of the 
work. First were the great forests, thick and tangled, just 
west of Rome. Trees must be cut down and stumps pulled. 
The ground was deeply matted with roots. A stump-puller 
was sent from England, and a great plow with two yoke of 
oxen was used to loosen up the roots. In some places the 
canal led through swamps, and hundreds of men were sick 
with fever and ague. Thus for a while near the Seneca River 
the work almost stopped. Other stretches of the canal had to 
be blasted out through rock, and this was slow and laborious. 

Important rivers like the Genesee had to be crossed, and 
this was a serious problem. Great massive stone arches were 
built across the valleys and streams, and stone troughs or 
aqueducts were built upon these, which formed a part of the 
canal. The rivers then could pass under these arches. Stone 
had to be hauled for building these arches and aqueducts. 

The canal had to be built at several levels, on account of 
the hilly and sloping nature of the land in places, and had to 
pass from one level to another, say ten feet higher or lower. 
At these places stone locks had to be built, with double gates 
at each end, and constructed long and wide enough to let 
boats pass into them so as to be raised or lowered as the water 
was let in or out. 

Work was going on in all these sections at the same time. 
As fast as any considerable part of the canal was completed, 
the water was let in, canal-boats were built, and goods 
shipped. The charges on these shipments, or tolls, counted up 
rapidly to a large sum, and people began to see that the 
canal, when finished, would be very profitable. 



INSTRUCTION 69 

5. At last the canal in all its parts was completed in 1825, 
being 365 miles long, having 72 locks and many stone aque- 
ducts. It crosses the Mohawk River twice. Its entire cost 
was $7,600,000. 

Of course the completion of the canal was celebrated in 
Buffalo and New York and at all the towns and cities be- 
tween. As Governor Clinton and a party of distinguished 
guests entered the canal at Buffalo in boats to travel to New 
York, a cannon was fired off, and this shot was followed by a 
series of cannon distributed along the whole route within 
hearing distance of each other. In this way the news was 
telegraphed to New York. All along the route they were re- 
ceived with speeches, feasts, and jollification, and at New 
York, two kegs of water from Lake Erie were poured into the 
New York Bay to signify the union of the Lakes with the 
ocean. It was really a great event in American history, as 
the products of the West could find easy transport to New 
York and to Europe by water. 

6. Important results quickly followed the completion of 
the canal. On the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the cost 
of freighting a ton of goods from Albany to Buffalo fell from 
$100 to $6, and later to $3. The whole farming country for 
miles back on both sides of the canal quickly grew into a 
rich, productive region. All along the canal, cities sprang up 
which in time have grown into large and populous centers of 
manufacturing. Nearly all of the large cities of New York 
State are located on or near this canal or the Hudson River. 
Smaller canals were built south and north of the Erie con- 
necting it with the Lakes and greatly increasing the trade. 
The success of the Erie Canal was greater than even its friends 
had expected. The tolls from 1825 to 1834 amounted to 
$8,500,000, which was more than the original cost. 

From the Ohio country and from all the Great Lakes 
region, products began to flow in toward Buffalo and along 
the canal to Albany and New York. The Eastern people 
desiring to move West found it easy to transport their family 
goods by the canal and Lakes to Cleveland, Detroit, and 
Chicago, and to move out to farms in Illinois, Indiana, Mich- 
igan, etc. 

From the opening of the Erie Canal, New York City began 
to grow and soon outdistanced all other cities in the United 



70 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

States in wealth and population. For some thirty years this 
canal was the chief highway of traffic for heavy goods be- 
tween the East and the West. It was also the chief mode of 
travel for people and families going between the East and the 
West. During this period the tolls on the canal brought in a 
large revenue to the State. 

7. Cities, like Philadelphia and Baltimore, on the eastern 
seaboard, were very anxious to share in the rich commerce 
of the West. Even before the building of the Erie Canal the 
Government of the United States had constructed the old 
National Road from Cumberland on the Potomac, across the 
mountains and through southwestern Pennsylvania to Wheel- 
ing on the Ohio. This road was afterward completed across 
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to St. Louis, and cost the Govern- 
ment about $7,000,000, not much less than the Erie Canal. 
It was a well-built stone road as far as Wheeling, with mas- 
sive stone bridges, and to this day is a good, solid highway. 
For many years it was thronged with wagons and emigrants, 
and their stock and goods moving to the west, into the Ohio 
Valley. The old hostelries along the road are yet fine old 
landmarks of the day when Henry Clay and Abraham Lin- 
coln traveled over this road by coach to Washington. 

Philadelphia sought to reach the West by still another 
route. Canals were built by the State along the Susque- 
hanna and up the Juniata to the edge of the mountain-ridge 
between Johnstown and Altoona. It was intended to carry 
the canal through this mountain barrier by a tunnel. An- 
other canal connected Johnstown with the Allegheny River 
and Pittsburg. But the tunneling of the mountain proved 
too difficult, and a portage railroad was built across the 
mountain-ridge, at State expense, to connect the two canals. 
Another railroad was built by the State of Pennsylvania from 
Philadelphia to the Susquehanna, and thus Philadelphia was 
connected from tidewater on the Delaware with the Ohio at 
Pittsburg. This became a great route of traffic between the 
Ohio country and Philadelphia. 

During this early period we find these three great routes 
competing for the traffic of the West. All of them were very 
important in the development of the West and in bringing 
about an easier interchange of products between the East 
and the West. 



INSTRUCTION 71 

8 Between 1840 and 1850 railroads were projected and 
built across the Alleghanies to assist in handling the immense 
traffic that had grown up, and to bring about a much quicker 
transit of goods and persons over long distances. It was only 
gradually and slowly that engineers and capitalists learned 
how to build and manage railroads. At first they were very 
crude and clumsy. Instead of engines they used horses and 
mules to draw the cars, and there were no cross-ties connect- 
ing the two rails. There were no stations or freight-houses, 
no regular times for trains to start, no headlights, no sleep- 
ing-cars, no telegraph. 

The New York Central Railroad, at first built in sections 
and afterwards combined into one road, ran parallel to the 
Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo, and on down the 
Hudson to New York. When this railroad connection was 
completed, goods and persons could be transported much 
more rapidly, and a large share of the trade was transferred 
to the railroad. But so great was the volume of trade that 
both canal and railroad were kept busy. Freight rates on the 
canal were so much cheaper for heavy produce that for grain 
and farm products it was much better to use the canal. The 
cheap rates on the canal kept down the railroad rates. 

9. In the early years the canal was so successful that 
people began talking of enlarging it. By making it deeper 
and wider, larger canal-boats could be used and transport 
would be cheaper. In 1835 it was decided to enlarge the 
canal, making it seventy feet wide at the top, and seven feet 
deep, and at the same time larger double locks were to be 
constructed. This was a costly undertaking, and its working 
out was not completed until 1862. This great improvement 
cost $15,000,000, just twice the original cost of the canal. 

The competition between the canal owned by the State 
and the railroads owned by private corporations continued. 
The New York Central Railroad built double tracks across 
the State and later what amounts to four tracks, so vast was 
the volume of business with the West. Other railroads across 
New York to Buffalo, as the Lehigh and Lackawanna, were 
built, and there was plenty of freight for all. 

10. Finally to enable the Erie Canal to compete better 
with the railroads for the Western trade, a second and much 
greater rebuilding and enlargement of the canal was talked 



72 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

about. The great railroad systems must not be allowed to 
gain a monopoly of trade and fix freight rates. There was a 
hot political campaign in New York State while Roosevelt 
was governor, and at the end of the campaign, it was decided 
by a large majority of the voters of the State to spend 
$100,000,000 enlarging the Erie Canal. This really meant the 
building of a new and much larger canal. 

The course of the canal was considerably changed; the 
Mohawk River was to be deepened and canalized and pools 
formed by means of locks. The canal is to be 125 feet wide 
at the top, 12 feet deep, and be able to float barges carrying 
1000 tons of freight. Great locks are to be built, large enough 
to pass two of these barges at once. Work on this improve- 
ment has now been in progress for about ten years, and when 
completed will make the Erie Canal one of the greatest 
canals in the world, and will not only furnish a cheap trans- 
port of Western products by water to the seaboard, but will 
compel the railroads to lower their rates. 

11. A comparison of the road-building and canal-building 
across Pennsylvania to connect with Pittsburg and Wheeling, 
and across New York to connect with Buffalo, will make it 
plain that the people of the United States have spent vast 
sums of money in the effort to bring about easy and rapid 
communication and transport between the Ohio River and 
Lake States on the one side and the Atlantic seaboard cities 
on the other. Later the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad across 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, and the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Canal across Virginia and West Virginia to the Ohio Valley 
served the same purpose. The great traffic routes in the 
United States have been built from east to west, often across 
the mountains, not north and south parallel with the moun- 
tains. The Welland Canal between Lake Erie and Lake 
Ontario and the canals around the Rapids of the St. Law- 
rence also compete with the New York route and carry 
much freight from the Great Lakes down the St. Lawrence 
River. 

Just as in the East, canals were built across New York 
to connect with the Western lakes, so in Illinois a canal was 
constructed later, in 1848, from Chicago on Lake Michigan 
down the Illinois River so as to unite the Mississippi River 
and the Lakes. Several such canals were also built across 



INSTRUCTION 73 

Ohio to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River, and across 
Indiana to the Wabash River. 

In recent years a strong effort has been made in Illinois to 
build a much greater canal from Chicago and down the Illi- 
nois, so as to secure great barge traffic between Chicago and 
the Gulf; also from Pittsburg down the Ohio and from St. 
Paul down the Mississippi to the Gulf. But while the United 
States Government has spent large sums in the improve- 
ment of navigation on the Ohio and along the Mississippi 
Rivers, these larger schemes have not yet taken effect. 

Conclusions from the above illustration: — 

1. The two diverging lines of thought, the longitudinal 
and the outward-radiating, are clearly marked. The main 
sub-topics form a connected, developing series. But each 
sub-topic expands into a larger, richer treatment. To keep 
these two thought movements in proper balance should be 
the aim of good instruction. 

2. In this study of the Erie Canal an idea is worked out 
step by step into a comprehensive and even continental 
importance. 

3. A large number of leading geographical facts is mas- 
tered as to their names, locations, and relative importance; 
e.g., cities, rivers, States, mountains, lakes, and traffic 
routes. 

4. The interpretation of the facts in the light of a basal idea 
which organizes them into a complex unit puts a rational 
connection and meaning into the whole. 

5. The comparisons furnish the basis for a strong and 
expanding thought movement, surprisingly rich in its results. 

6. As the subject develops, the important facts range 
themselves into parallel series which give opportunity for 
good repetition drills; e.g.: — 

New York Albany Buffalo. 

Philadelphia Harrisburg Pittsburg. 

Baltimore Washington Wheeling. 

Norfolk Richmond Cincinnati. 

Again, — 

Hudson River . . . Mohawk River . . Lake Erie. 

Delaware River.. Susquehanna R. . Ohio River. 



74 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

Chesapeake Bay. Potomac River. . Ohio River. 

Lake Erie Welland Canal. . L. Ontario and 

St. Lawrence R. 

7. The growth and interpretation of this geographical 
topic, based on physical features, natural products, and the 
demands of transport, run exactly parallel with the westward 
expansion of the American people, the most fundamental and 
important movement in our history. History and geography 
could not be better combined. 



CHAPTER IV 

DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 

In mastering lessons, by children, two distinctly 
opposite habits of thought are highly prized. One is the 
ability to appropriate an assigned lesson, as in history 
or geography. It requires concentration of thought 
upon the treatment as given by the author in a text- 
book or as presented by the teacher. An attentive 
memory to grasp and retain the subject in the form and 
order furnished by the author is essential. The au- 
thor's organization, point of view, and handling of the 
topic are to be mastered and reproduced in essentials. 
Many excellent teachers feel proud of students who 
can reproduce a lesson or series of lessons showing a 
thorough mastery of the organized outline and detail 
of the author's treatment. Several times within a year 
I have heard good teachers speak with enthusiasm of 
those students whom they could bring to this standard 
of excellence. Such a lesson in content, organization, 
and form may be called a dictation (not in exact verbal 
form, but in the essentials of thought and expression). 
The characteristic mental act of pupils in such lessons 
is not independent thought, but a mastery in conform- 
ity to an author's ideas, arrangement, and terminology. 

The other habit referred to is that of independent 
thinking, of free individual judgment applied to sub- 
ject-matter. In arithmetic and algebra, problems are 



76 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

given which call for constructive and independent 
thought. A difficult problem in arithmetic may require 
an original and ingenious combination of given ele- 
ments to point out a solution, and it may also require 
a complex figure process in careful reckoning. Experi- 
ments in physics and chemistry require some degree of 
originality in combining elements and in drawing infer- 
ences. In designing constructive problems in the man- 
ual arts there is a wide, open field for originality and 
invention. The designing of a rowboat of the simplest 
construction is a problem that will employ a boy's 
best original effort and its execution will put his prac- 
tical ability to the full test. In composition and more 
elaborate theme-writing, the independent, original 
selection and organization of thought materials are 
placed at a high premium. Self-reliant thinking, which 
is unshackled except by the necessary conditions of 
thought, is the desirable thing. Children should learn 
to exercise freedom of thought and the broad judgment 
that is necessary to ballast it. If a child is to become a 
robust thinker, it will come to him only through robust 
experience in self-reliant thinking. 

These two qualities in the student — conformity to 
dictated modes of thought and freedom of judgment, 
or the very spirit of freedom in thinking — seem to 
exclude one another, or at least they do not enter easily 
into close companionship. It is not in our purpose to 
undervalue either of these important phases of mental 
power, but to recommend both of them strongly, and 
to accept each at its full face value. It is our particular 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 77 

business to show up the strong side of each of these 
phases of mental effort and then to make clear the 
possiblity of a friendly cooperation between them in 
spite of their seeming antagonism. 

In the nature of the case, much of the knowledge 
material in school studies and also its organization 
must be arbitrarily imposed upon children. Language, 
for example, in its usual forms and grammatical rules, 
is a necessary dictation, based upon usage and conven- 
tion. A child cannot be permitted to invent his own 
word-forms, nor to make his own arbitrary rules of 
syntax. Textbooks in grammar, arithmetic, and his- 
tory are under the necessity of giving the selection, 
order, and, in part, the mode of treatment of topics. 
Nor is the teacher free to break into this order unless 
he has something better to offer which he in turn dic- 
tates to his pupils. Our alphabets, our methods of 
notation in arithmetic, our decimal scale, and our 
standard measures and tables are pure dictations. 
These, like spelling, writing, and other formal modes of 
expression, have taken on stereotyped forms and must 
be accepted and mastered as given. Careful require- 
ments and repeated drills on these assigned tasks are 
unavoidable. The rigor of these irksome drills and the 
roughness of this thorny road to knowledge have been 
softened somewhat by the devices of instruction, by 
making forms incidental to interesting thought exer- 
cises, and by a more systematic organization of the 
formal elements; but the dictated and arbitrary char- 
acter of this subject-matter remains much the same. 



78 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

. On the other hand, freedom of thought and an inde- 
pendent attitude of mind toward the content of studies 
is to be fostered from the beginning of school life. Free- 
dom of action, which we discussed in the preceding 
chapter on school management, is no more important 
than freedom to think. An open mind, that looks out 
upon the world with an unbiased and even critical 
judgment, expresses the true attitude of the learner. 
This frank and self-reliant independence of spirit can be 
cultivated in every study and in nearly every lesson. 
This kind of freedom means more than the removal of 
restraints and barriers, so as to let the child loose to 
disport itself in free play and free thought and action, 
as Rousseau demanded. The gaining of intellectual 
and moral freedom is a still higher achievement which 
a free, self-reliant spirit wins for itself through struggle 
and self-discipline. Like the knight of old, a Roland or 
a Launcelot, the young hero, in the freedom of his un- 
tried powers, must go out to meet hardship and com- 
bat, and win true freedom and self-reliance in his own 
strength. The school is the place to give a child partial 
freedom and wider opportunity to gain for himself a 
still higher kind of freedom. The school purposely sets 
problems and difficulties, i.e., opportunities, for the 
child to struggle for the development of self-reliant 
powers. A hard problem worked out through construc- 
tive thinking inspires confidence in one's own resources. 
Obedience to required forms and the mastery of dic- 
tated material, on the one side, freedom of thought and 
self-reliant effort on the other, — we may appraise the 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 79 

value of methods of teaching by their power to develop 
and to combine these characteristic antithetical quali- 
ties. This amounts to a demand for a combined double 
standard of excellence. When we have once deter- 
mined what a suitable course of study is, with the selec- 
tion and organization of materials which constitute it, 
we shall find that the mastery and assimilation of such 
a course by boys and girls is based upon a combined 
dictation and independent-thought method. If at the 
present moment we should take stock of the methods in 
vogue in our better schools, we should probably find a 
strong predominance of dictation methods. If, contra- 
riwise, we should take council of our writers and author- 
ities on the general theory of education, we should 
find a strong preferential demand for freedom of 
thought in the instruction of children; so wide apart 
are theory and practice, and so cock-sure is each party, 
that it has the truth on its own side. The practitioners, 
with their dictated work, have the advantage, how- 
ever, because they are controlling, managing, and 
teaching the children, while it is doubtful whether the 
advocates of freedom are holding their own even in 
their classrooms and with their own students. 

On the one side, the forces of conservatism and tra- 
dition, which stand squarely for a dictated education, 
are powerfully intrenched in courses of study, in text- 
books, and in long-established habits of the teaching 
body. On the other side, an instruction that empha- 
sizes independent thought in children, however sound, 
is out of harmony with prevailing books and methods, 



80 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

is reformatory and disturbing in its tendencies, and 
has not yet demonstrated its ability to organize a ra- 
tional course of study. In fact, the proposal to develop 
children into freedom and independence of thought, 
even in a moderate and reasonable degree, sets up a 
standard which is exceedingly difficult of attainment. 
Even with a much richer and better organized course 
of study than we have at present, and with much better 
trained teachers, the proposed standard would be very 
high, almost ideal. When we consider that even 
among well-educated people the faculty for free and 
independent thought is somewhat unusual and remark- 
able, and that among teachers only occasionally do 
we meet that peculiar cast of mind which thinks inde- 
pendently and seems, by some intuitive gift, to awaken 
the free mental energies of pupils, we may not be sur- 
prised to find that the majority of teachers travel on a 
lower plain and not on the uplands of independent 
thought. 

Yet the problem of harmonizing these opposing 
tendencies is one we as teachers are called upon to 
solve. It will remain a problem to our successors to be 
solved over and over again when we are long forgotten. 
The practical difficulties of the present situation in the 
schools we will attempt to discuss somewhat further. 

Many earnest and vigorous teachers limit their in- 
struction mainly or entirely to a definitely fixed and 
organized subject-matter, and to exacting drill meth- 
ods in reproducing it. Some of the arguments offered 
for this mode of procedure are as follows: (1) such exer- 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 81 

cises are excellent mental training and establish good 
habits of study, attentive concentration, mental grasp, 
and sustained effort; (2) children are by nature imita- 
tive and receptive and not capable of much originality 
in thinking; (3) they must first acquire the essential 
elements of every subject by dictation methods before 
they can possess the materials upon which to exercise 
their free and independent judgment. The general 
presumption at the basis of these arguments is that 
boys and girls do not rise to the stage of self-reliance 
and independent thought till after they have passed 
out of the elementary school at the age of fourteen or 
fifteen. 

This conclusion, if true, would deliver our schools 
into the hands of the drill-master. Memory exercises 
and repetition drills would dominate instruction as 
indeed is often the case. On this basis, the course of 
study and the method of teaching would be laid down 
within definite and narrow limits. The processes of 
instruction would be simple, mechanical, and perhaps 
easy for the teacher. 

The main objection to all this from the advocates of 
freedom is that independence and self-activity in 
thought are fundamental necessities to a child from the 
first start into school. This is a basal presupposition 
on the other side of the controversy. Freedom and 
rationality in thinking have their beginnings in early 
child life and require a steady and unbroken cultiva- 
tion. A free outlook and a fearless, self-reliant spirit in 
facing the oncoming experiences of life should be 



82 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

vouchsafed to every child. Such a spirit is cultivated 
by cheerfully throwing the doors wide open, and not 
by a narrow, arbitrary dictation which tends by itself 
to suppress spontaneity and freedom. Good reasons 
may be assigned why a rigid dictatorial method of 
learning should not be clamped down upon the spirits 
of young children. It is like a nipping frost to tender 
plants. It fails even to get strong attention in primary 
classrooms, — a first necessity. It furnishes no suitable 
transition from the free play and spontaneous activi- 
ties of the period just before entering school. Such dic- 
tated exercises lay a heavy burden of voluntary atten- 
tion upon children at a too early period of their mental 
development. Such an arbitrary instruction usually 
pays little regard to a child's natural interests and im- 
pulses for action. It leaves out the element of motive 
except it be the motive of fear. Even young children 
like to initiate and carry out crude efforts at construc- 
tion, drawing, and play, and this enterprising spirit 
should have free scope. Throughout child life each 
hopeful should be growing in the power of intelligent 
self-determination, with frequent opportunity and 
encouragement to self -direction. 

This bold theory of self-activity and self-direction 
in the learning processes of children has been vigorously 
advocated from age to age by reformers such as Base- 
dow, Rousseau, Froebel, Spencer, Agassiz and John 
Dewey. It has been also humorously caricatured and 
ridiculed by generation after generation of schoolmas- 
ters. In recent years, it has been applied and worked 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 83 

out with more or less success by bold and capable 
teachers who are not afraid to try experiments and to 
test out theories. Young children are found to learn 
best when allowed a large measure of self-activity in 
their studious efforts. Story-telling in primary grades, 
as well as in the middle grades, with its dramatic 
scenes, its open discussion and free reproductions, 
impersonations, etc., lies mainly in the realm of free- 
dom, far removed from standard forms of dictation. 
In intermediate and grammar grades our chief means of 
saving instruction from hopeless dullness is the intro- 
duction of more liveliness into class instruction by 
setting up interesting aims for discussion and debate: 
e.g., Was Jefferson justified in purchasing Louisiana? 
Who was chiefly responsible for the failure of Bur- 
goyne's expedition? Who was mainly instrumental in 
the introduction of slavery into the colonies? Why did 
La Salle fail in his plans? 

The recent introduction of more vital topics with 
richer materials of study in geography, history, and 
applied science, the greater freedom for working out 
interesting problems and for collecting source mate- 
rials, products, pictures, and outside references, have 
improved instruction. In the upper grades, no kind of 
spontaneous interest and self-activity is quite equal to 
that offered by a somewhat free range of discussion in 
developing an important idea which progressively or- 
ganizes rich materials of thought in a large topic. Under 
their own impulses of thought the topic keeps develop- 
ing into wider views and to sharper insight into broad 



84 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

world relations. The Erie Canal, and later the Panama 
Canal, as shown up in their extensive national and 
world connections, grow steadily in interest, and in 
comprehensiveness, and in demonstrated practical 
thought value. 

The outcome of our discussion so far, in our effort 
to present both sides of the argument, is a manifest 
dualism. There is a marked tendency to fall into argu- 
ment and controversy, to maintain one side against the 
other. But our problem is not simple enough to be 
settled by a conclusive argument on one side or the 
other. Its solution calls for a larger conception which 
accommodates the principle of freedom, first, to the 
nature and organization of subject-matter in studies, 
and second, to the process by which a child gradually 
develops into more of freedom and of self-determina- 
tion. 

The value of a plan or method of teaching subjects 
may be judged in large part by its tendency to combine 
these two modes of instruction, namely, dictation and 
independent thought. Or its defect may lie in empha- 
sizing one to the neglect of the other. Our long-prevail- 
ing textbook method, for example, may be judged by 
its effect in cultivating freedom of thought or conform- 
ity to dictated subject-matter. Much, of course, will 
depend on the teacher, his method of assigning lessons, 
his way of using the book in the class, the quality of 
his questions and tests, and his tendency to discuss 
and illustrate the content of the book. Speaking, how- 
ever, in general terms, a textbook treatment of a topic 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 85 

may be described as a pronounced dictation method, 
because it prescribes with full authority the content 
and form of the lesson which is to be appropriated by 
memory and reason. If a child does much independent 
thinking in learning a textbook lesson, he may get into 
trouble, and, what is more serious, he may get the 
teacher into trouble. 

It has been commonly assumed by our teachers that 
a child, left to himself to master a lesson from a book, 
is cultivating self-activity and self-reliance in thinking. 
The teacher sets him off by himself to learn his lesson 
by his own effort. But memorizing such dictated les- 
sons is no sure proof that a child is exercising inde- 
pendent powers of thought. His real independence is 
often shown by the way in which he manages to dodge 
the requirement. If he does submit his will to the 
teacher and learns his lesson, he is very apt to do it by 
a habit of more or less thoughtless memorizing of words 
and phrases. There is no certainty that he understands 
what he learns from a book. Often it is easier to mem- 
orize than to understand a passage, for our textbooks, 
unfortunately, contain many vague generalities which 
are not easily understood by the average mind. An- 
other criticism of our textbooks, as commonly used, is 
that they give neither teacher nor pupil any experience 
in the original organization of material, and not much 
encouragement to judge independently the relative 
worth of the author's facts or statements. The natural 
tendency, therefore, of textbook instruction is toward 
conformity and not toward independency in thinking. 



86 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

In many cases, dependence upon the book is complete, 
and what we may call the worship of the book becomes 
an unconscious habit. A textbook is a great help to a 
poorly equipped teacher, but it may become a cramping 
limitation to a strong, capable teacher. If the teacher 
could regard the textbook as a useful outline, which it 
often is, to be modified at will, enlarged at important 
centers of thought, contracted or omitted at other 
points, open to free criticism because of faulty arrange- 
ment or defect in method, to be examined or even 
pulled to pieces to discover its real merits, it might, in 
the hands of such an active-minded teacher, become the 
basis of a combination method which would develop 
the sound knowledge and thinking powers of children. 
A textbook used by a thoughtful teacher may be made 
the ground of a much broader treatment of the subject 
involving free discussion of other points of view, criti- 
cism, and individual judgment. 

There are certain serious and unavoidable defects in 
our textbooks which can be compensated for only by 
having a teacher who is much larger than the book. 

(1) The book cannot give an adequate treatment of 
the important topics. The enlargement of topics at 
such central points must fall to the teacher. 

(2) The book cannot easily set up problems and give 
the fit suggestion to their progressive, independent 
working-out. The teacher can do this through discus- 
sion and assignment. 

(3) The reflective tracing-out of the relations in 
which a central topic stands to other topics, gained 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 87 

through causal connection, comparisons based on 
likeness and contrast, and other forms of association, 
— this considerate balancing up and organizing of 
thought material can be done very inadequately in a 
textbook treatment. A versatile, thoughtful, and 
ingenious teacher can bring these things to pass in a 
classroom. 

We cannot fail to observe, however, that these de- 
fects appear at those very points where freedom and 
independence of judgment are most in demand. The 
average use of textbooks means the acceptance of 
knowledge on authority with but slight effort to train 
children to freedom of judgment. 

The great merit of textbooks, on the other hand, as 
used by good instructors, lies in the fact that regular 
daily tasks can be assigned, demanding strong, studi- 
ous effort, throwing complete responsibility upon the 
pupils and furnishing a good basis of knowledge upon 
which discussion and amplification of the subject can 
be made in the class period. A teacher who knows how 
to open up a textbook lesson by a good assignment, 
who not only gives vigorous tests for the mastery of 
the assigned lesson, but can enlarge and enrich the 
whole topic by illustrations, by comparisons, and the 
discussion of problems involved, may thus combine the 
content of the text with a strong stimulation to inde- 
pendent thought. An illustration of this mode of 
treatment is attempted at the close of this chapter in 
connection with Burgoyne's invasion. 

A lecture method, such as is used in higher schools 



88 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

and colleges, when tested by our combined double 
standard of efficiency, is found to have faults that are 
not easily remedied. A lecture may be interesting or 
dull : in either case it is a dictation. The readings that 
run parallel with the lectures may offer a good student 
opportunity for independent study. The real problem 
for the teacher and student, however, is that of learning 
how to organize and simplify miscellaneous and scat- 
tered source materials. The usual tests for college lec- 
tures and readings will do little to train students into 
these superior habits of organization. But just at this 
point lies the possibility for training students into orig- 
inality and balanced judgment in thinking. The usual 
college tests of knowledge are confined mainly to mem- 
ory reproductions and to reasoning within somewhat 
narrow limits of assigned or dictated material. Gradu- 
ate work, with its original themes and investigations, 
offers much better training of independent powers after 
a college course is completed. 

Laboratory methods in the physical and biological 
sciences are designed to set problems to test the re- 
sourcefulness and self-dependence of students in work- 
ing out solutions. But the achievement of such inde- 
pendence of thought, even in science study, is not an 
easily secured result. The laboratories must be directed 
by thoughtful and resourceful teachers just as in other 
studies. In the same way, the industrial arts, with 
their constructive problems, were supposed to promote 
free activity and self-directed effort in planning and 
executing projects. But under a mechanical teacher, 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 89 

the manual arts drop back into routine processes and 
blue-print dictations of problems as formal and arbi- 
trary as any lessons in spelling, writing, or grammar. 
We are forced back to the conclusion that it requires a 
vital and original teacher to awaken originality and 
versatility of resource in pupils. 

An oral-and-development method of instruction has 
been growing up in primary and intermediate grades, 
and in departmental work of grammar schools, which 
has in it some of the elements of power, combined with 
weaknesses that ought to be eliminated. An oral 
method of instruction calls for distinct mastery and 
control of subject-matter by the teacher, and it allows 
greater flexibility of treatment with discussion, ques- 
tion, criticism, and the setting of problems. Successful 
oral instruction imposes upon the teacher, at the start, 
several high-grade qualifications: (1) a complete and 
transparent organization of the subject-matter that 
sets main features into prominence and groups the 
secondary facts and illustrations around these central 
points; (2) quickness in interpreting the past experi- 
ences, the ideas and feelings of children; (3) discrimi- 
nating skill in formulating and adapting questions; (4) 
clearness in narrative and dramatic presentation, 
board-sketching, etc.; (5) versatility and breadth in 
managing discussion so as to hold to the main line of 
argument while allowing some degree of freedom to 
digress. 

Another point, which is coming more and more into 
view as our methods of oral instruction develop and 



90 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

improve, is the problem-setting idea as a means of 
securing stronger, more independent thought. We are 
familiar with the problem in arithmetic and in higher 
mathematics as a means of forcing some degree of 
original, constructive thinking. The science labora- 
tory and shop- work in the arts also furnish good prob- 
lems, so far as the teacher is wise in selecting and using 
them. As history and geography are brought down 
close to man's needs and conditions, in the past and 
present, nearly every topic in these subjects becomes a 
vital problem, a struggle with given conditions to 
achieve certain valuable results. The Civil War was a 
mighty problem for Lincoln. Bismarck's masterly 
heroic struggle for the unification of Germany was his 
absorbing problem, the mainspring of his actions. The 
old National Road was a statesman's problem. Ful- 
ton's life was spent in heroic and successful efforts to 
solve a difficulty in steam navigation. Men and na- 
tions have been and are at work solving problems, and 
boys and girls in school should get at these questions as 
soon as they have the brain power to understand and 
appreciate their meaning. 

The problem-working idea, however, followed back 
to its source, is much more than a useful device of 
method for stimulating the best kind of thinking, val- 
uable as it may be to that end. The big topics, which, 
when arranged into a series, constitute the backbone 
of the course of study in any branch of knowledge, 
may be best stated in the form of problems. In each 
of the large units of study into which our curriculum is 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 91 

being resolved, for the purpose of simpler organization, 
is a central dominant idea. The demonstration and 
later working-out of this idea is the problem of this 
unit of study. Such ideas are usually worked out in the 
face of difficulties, obstructions, and complications. In 
fact, such an idea usually grows and develops through 
a series of minor problems which are the logical steps 
in its unfolding. The idea, for example, of the Panama 
Canal has thus developed in history through such a 
series of obstacles. One by one, the problems have 
been mastered and the result aimed at, the content of 
the idea, has now been realized. In the future, it will 
go on working its effects. The idea of utilizing the 
power of steam for man's uses in the industries, com- 
merce, etc., has gone on developing from one problem 
to another through stationary engines, locomotives, 
ship-propelling engines, etc., till it has transformed the 
world. Electrical power has taken a similar course 
through problems. The Columbus idea, the railroad 
idea, the cotton-producing and manufacturing idea, 
the Federal Government or Union idea, the public 
school idea, — the world of human interests has been 
organizing itself along the lines which these and a few 
other great ideas have laid out in their progressive 
development. The schoolmaster should seize upon 
these basal ideas upon which our national, social, and 
industrial life has been organizing itself, and make 
them the main lines of movement in the thought work 
of children. Especially so, because every one of these 
ideas has worked itself out concretely and dramati- 



92 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

cally through a succession of problems, — bold, enter- 
prising, often heroic problems, which appeal to the 
imagination and intelligence of children. The great 
man, the inventor, the discoverer, the philanthropist, 
the real statesman, is the problem-solver, the man who 
can break through difficulties and obstructions and 
lead his party to success in a new and higher realization 
of some aggressive idea. In this way the school follows 
in the footsteps of life and leads out of the past directly 
into the problems of the present. 

At this point we reach the culmination of our argu- 
ment in favor of free, self-reliant thinking. Such inde- 
pendence of thought is not to be had for the asking, but 
only under the most favorable conditions, a wisely 
organized course of study, and sagacious teachers. The 
development of children toward independency in 
thinking is a knotty point for the teacher. An unusual 
degree of shrewdness and ingenuity is required for 
setting children's minds to working independently. 
Unbiased reflection and self-examination may surprise 
the teacher with the discovery that his whole method 
has been dictatorial, although he may have been ac- 
tively preaching the doctrine of self -activity. It is 
difficult to throw children into the water and to force 
them to swim for themselves — without drowning. In 
other words, stimulating children to self-activity in 
thought is a high art. It is a process not easy of formu- 
lation, if it can be formulated at all. The mother bird 
is said to push the fledgling out of the nest to get it to 
try its wings. In the nature of the case, it is difficult 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 93 

to make rules for crossing the boundary into the land 
of freedom, more than to say, "Get up and go." Yet 
we must keep pushing children over this boundary line 
and watching their struggles on the other side. 

Such a vigorous practical thinker as George Kersch- 
ensteiner, of Munich, seems to despair of getting inde- 
pendent effort or self -activity in thinking through the 
systematic instruction of the German Volkschule. Yet 
the Volkschule is considered by many the best in the 
world, in our time, in point of training and experience 
of its teachers, and in the organization of its course of 
study. Our problem, therefore, is not an easy one. 
The demand for growing freedom and independence of 
thought is too strong to be rejected or set aside. It lies 
in the normal direction of the development of human 
nature during the period of childhood and youth. But 
the road to freedom in thinking is a difficult one to 
travel, and it is still more difficult to direct others into 
it. It is, indeed, one of the greatest achievements in 
the world of mind, and such things are never gained 
without serious effort. 

Again, this road to freedom lies through a rigorous 
training in the dictated materials of knowledge organ- 
ized into an established course of study. The dictated 
materials of thought are to be so handled that freedom 
to think shall find constantly an open door by which 
to emerge into a larger world. The teacher should keep 
these two things in mind and bring them into coopera- 
tion. 

Such advice is necessary, for the schoolmaster natu- 



94 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

rally grows into a dictatorial attitude in teaching. This 
is emphasized by the fact that originality of thought 
and expression are often, perhaps, unconsciously dis- 
couraged by teachers. We have frequently heard chil- 
dren reproved by teachers for giving a bright, original 
answer because the teacher was not looking for an orig- 
inal answer and did not recognize it when offered. Not 
seldom the child's apt reply to a teacher's question is 
positively rejected because the teacher has a stereo- 
typed phrase in mind and is satisfied with nothing else. 
In some cases the child's answer may be wholly original 
and more appropriate to the case. In a second-grade 
class the teacher was asking the children why we liked 
to see the rain in spring-time. One practical little girl 
replied, in all sincerity, "Because the girls can catch 
rain-water so they can wash their hair." But the 
teacher was not quick enough to accept this answer in 
good faith. 

Again, certain easy and natural objections may be 
offered against cultivating a marked freedom of thought 
in ordinary schoolrooms. The spirit of freedom, as it 
manifests itself in young people, is not always agree- 
able. It is noisy and creates possible disturbance and 
disorder. It upsets the established routine of conven- 
tional thinking and acting. The teacher, if not an intel- 
lectual boss, is at least usually conservative and holds 
to trodden paths. His chief function is to conserve and 
hand down the best culture of the past rather than to 
quicken independent thought. Culture, in the main, 
takes on established forms, in literature even an artis- 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 95 

tic and highly polished form. Even science has been 
reduced to principles and laws definitely organized and 
brought to exact statement. 

But freedom of thought, in an almost exaggerated 
form, is a birthright of American children. They have 
already entered upon this right and there is not much 
prospect of curtailing it. The real freedom toward 
which children should be trained is the freedom that 
comes from thinking out and knowing the truth, the 
freedom to acquire, not narrow and one-sided views or 
prejudices, but rather complete and balanced judg- 
ments, which take in the important phases of a subject 
and understand it in its essential bearings. The schools 
can do more than any other agency, by cultivating bal- 
anced modes of thinking, to head off wild and reckless 
schemes of liberty, so as to make freedom rational and 
sensible. 

From this point of view, teachers should be highly 
liberal and progressive with a strong conservative bias, 
so as to lead children constantly and steadily into larger 
and safer courses of thought. 

The following discussion of Burgoyne's campaign 
may suggest some of the problems of that interesting 
undertaking, which may give the children a chance to 
study the situation more broadly, weigh the evidence, 
and form their own independent judgments: — 

burgoyne's campaign 

Burgoyne's campaign and its results offer a series of lively 
problems for class discussion. Presupposing that the class is 
following the usual textbook treatment of this topic, its im- 



96 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

portance would warrant an enlargement of the class discus- 
sion, involving additional reference materials, maps, etc. For 
the use of the teacher and as special reference work for indi- 
vidual children in grammar grades, the following books are 
suggested: Fiske's small volume on The War of Independ- 
ence, chapter vi; also, vol. I of Fiske's American Revolution, 
last two chapters; S. A. Drake's Burgoyne's Invasion of 1777, 
an excellent little book devoted to this campaign; Sloane's 
French War and the Revolution, chapters xxii, xxiii. 

Outline of points 

1. Burgoyne's plan. 

2. Find out the reasons why Burgoyne's remarkable success 
in the first stage of his campaign was soon changed into a 
series of disasters. 

3. Disposition and character of British generals: failure to 
cooperate. 

4. Quarrels among American generals: cooperation. 

5. Results of Burgoyne's campaign and surrender. 

6. Burgoyne's campaign compared with Cornwallis's cam- 
paign and surrender at Yorktown. 

1. Burgoyne's plan. 

The general plan of the British campaign for getting pos- 
session of New York along the line of Lake Champlain and 
the Hudson was discussed the preceding winter in London by 
Burgoyne, in conference with the Cabinet and military au- 
thorities in England, including Sir George Germaine and the 
king. Burgoyne had been with the English army fighting in 
America and was able to convince the king and his counselors 
that he had a shrewd plan for ending the war. 

Observe more closely, by studying the map, what this plan 
was. Three British armies were to move from three directions 
toward Albany and combine their forces. Burgoyne, with a 
strong and finely equipped army, was to move up Lake 
Champlain, Lord Howe with a still more powerful force (he 
had 30,000 men at New York) was to move up the Hudson, 
and St. Leger with a strong force of British, Canadians, and 
Indians was to march from Oswego to Fort Stanwix and 
down the Mohawk. The Tories, under the lead of Sir John 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 97 

Johnson and the Iroquois Indians, were supporting the Eng- 
lish. Sir Guy Carleton remained in Canada to aid Burgoyne 
with supplies and reinforcements from that quarter. In order 
to make the campaign successful for the British, three differ- 
ent commanders, widely separated and unable to communi- 
cate easily with each other, must move promptly toward a 
central point near Albany. 

There were, besides the three strong armies, certain other 
less positive advantages that Burgoyne reckoned on. Five 
hundred Indians and a force of Canadian militia joined his 
army in moving up Lake Champlain. The large number of 
Tories in the Mohawk Valley and in central New York would 
render him material aid. Along the borders of Vermont and 
Massachusetts, he expected that a large number of Tories 
would flock to his standard, bringing provisions and fighting 
strength. In fact, Burgoyne and the British leaders thought 
there were so many Tories and friends of England on their 
line of march that they would be, as it were, traveling through 
a friendly country. Again, Burgoyne felt that the overwhelm- 
ing military forces which were brought into the field by the 
English would break down all opposition and cause a scatter- 
ing among the Americans. What prospect was there now 
that Burgoyne, as the central figure in the campaign, could 
bring all these forces into cooperation so as to win a final 
success? 

But all these things made up only half of Burgoyne's prob- 
lem. What was the situation with the Americans and their 
armies? What were they likely to do? St. Clair had a force 
of two or three thousand at Ticonderoga. General Schuyler 
had a small army at Fort Edward. The forts of the Hudson 
were held by the American troops. Washington had an army 
in New Jersey watching Howe at New York. Possibly Wash- 
ington might keep Howe busy so that he would fail to send a 
strong force to aid Burgoyne. What would the New England 
militia do when they saw Burgoyne's army moving down 
toward Albany, e.g., Stark and the Green Mountain boys? 
Even in the Mohawk Valley there were German and other 
patriots who might give aid in the defense of Fort Stanwix. 
Even a part of the Iroquois tribes were friendly to the Ameri- 
cans. Possibly the American people as a whole were far more 
in earnest in repelling an invading army than Burgoyne and 



98 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

his friends supposed. The Americans, too, were well ac- 
quainted with the rough wilderness through which the British 
army was to march. The English were not. 

It was an easy thing for Burgoyne to show in a British 
drawing-room how this campaign could be worked out on 
paper, but when his army got into the woods and swamps 
between Lake Champlain and Fort Edward, would it work 
out so easily? Burgoyne's campaign was a problem of unu- 
sual complexity and showed up various unforeseen difficul- 
ties that arise in an extended series of military operations. 

2. As Burgoyne's splendidly equipped army came sweep- 
ing up Lake Champlain it carried everything before it; cap- 
tured Ticonderoga, and scattered the American forces in 
several directions. This was followed by a series of equally 
remarkable reverses. 

What mistakes did Burgoyne make following the capture 
of Ticonderoga? Could he have avoided these mistakes? 
Was Burgoyne responsible for the defeat at Bennington? At 
Fort Stanwix? Did the Indian allies of Burgoyne prove of 
any assistance or advantage to him? Why? After Lincoln 
came in behind Burgoyne's army and broke up his communi- 
cations and cut off his supplies, can you think of any way by 
which Burgoyne could have saved his army? 

If Sir William Howe, with a powerful army, had moved 
promptly up the Hudson, could he have saved Burgoyne's 
army from destruction? Show in what ways and to what ex- 
tent Washington was responsible for the final defeat and cap- 
ture of Burgoyne's army. In how many directions had Bur- 
goyne's expectations been disappointed and his combinations 
broken up? 

3. An extensive campaign like that of Burgoyne furnishes 
a remarkable study of human nature as exhibited by the 
generals. 

Burgoyne's defeat and surrender were made a matter of 
investigation by the British Parliament. The British Cabi- 
net tried to throw the blame for the defeat upon Burgoyne, 
but an inquiry in the House of Commons brought out the 
fact that Lord George Germaine, at the head of the British 
War Office in England, had failed to send the positive order 
to General Howe to move up the Hudson to aid Burgoyne. 
So, being left to his own judgment, Howe sailed away to the 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 99 

Chesapeake and thus made it impossible for him to give aid 
to Burgoyne at the critical moment. Sir Guy Carleton, who 
commanded the British forces in Canada, failed to send 
troops to man Ticonderoga, so that Burgoyne was compelled 
to detach a thousand of his own army to hold that place. St. 
Leger's expedition was a disastrous failure, as was also the 
movement against Bennington. The Indians also deserted 
him. The British plan for cooperation had broken down at 
every point, because of lack of definite orders or of inefficiency 
or jealousy of the commanders. How would you distribute 
the blame for the failure of Burgoyne's campaign? 

4. Mistakes and quarrels among the American generals. 

Stark, having refused to obey the orders of General Schuy- 
ler, planned the battle of Bennington according to his own 
notion, and won a brilliant success. Congress had blundered 
in appointing Gates, a poor general, to succeed Schuyler, a 
good one. Arnold quarreled with Gates, and plunged into 
the battle of Saratoga contrary to the wishes of his superior. 
But in spite of these disagreements the American generals 
had cooperated successfully in every important movement. 
Washington, although at a great distance from the scene of 
action, and confronted by an army twice as large as his own, 
had greatly aided the other American generals, not only with 
advice and the influence of his authority, but also with some 
of his best generals and troops. He sent Arnold and the dar- 
ing Morgan with five hundred picked men. It may be said 
that at nearly every point, while the British generals had 
blundered and failed to cooperate, the American generals, 
on the contrary, had shown skill and good judgment and 
cooperation. 

5. Observe more closely the somewhat unexpected results 
that followed from the capture of the British army by the 
Americans. The Americans were naturally jubilant. They 
had demonstrated their power to do great things. Even the 
militia could fight or whip veterans, whether from Germany 
or England. It raised the spirit of the young nation and made 
the people confident that they could win independence. 
What was the reception of this news in England? Parliament 
met in profound gloom. The leader of the Tory party, Lord 
North, turned a complete political somersault in full view of 
the world, introducing a bill to grant all demands originally 



100 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

made by the Americans, and giving up forever the right of 
Parliament to tax the Americans. France had been watching 
and waiting to see what America could do single-handed 
against the power of England. Franklin, our shrewd diplo- 
mat, did not fail to take advantage of this situation. What 
other motives influenced France to join with America in a 
close league of friendship at this time? War was declared 
between France and England. Spain soon followed France, 
and Holland was drawn in later. What would naturally be 
the outcome of this powerful combination of European states 
against England? Even Prussia and Russia showed an un- 
friendly attitude toward England, and refused to allow Ger- 
man troops to be sent to America. 

Why should a battle between small armies in the back- 
woods of America produce such far-reaching influence upon 
the politics of the great nations of the world? 

6. Burgoyne's campaign, in several important features, 
may be brought into comparison, later in the history study, 
with the second great military campaign of the Revolution, 
ending in Cornwallis's surrender and the virtual conclusion 
of the war. 

At the beginning of this campaign how does the battle of 
Camden resemble Burgoyne's capture of Ticonderoga? What 
striking similarity is there between the battle of King's 
Mountain and the battle of Bennington? The battle of 
Cowpens was also a reverse for Cornwallis that upset his 
plans. 

It is a curious fact that Gates, the victor at Saratoga, 
suffered at Camden the worst defeat in the Southern cam- 
paign, changing, they said, his Northern laurels into South- 
ern willows. 

In what respects do the events leading to the surrender of 
Cornwallis at Yorktown resemble the events of Burgoyne's 
campaign and surrender? 

Cornwallis moved down to the coast at Yorktown to coop- 
erate with the British fleet and to secure aid from New York. 
Washington, on the other hand, by a wide-reaching combin- 
ation of his own army with the French troops under Rocham- 
beau, with the French fleet under De Grasse and with La- 
fayette's army in Virginia, all brought together at one time, 
to the surprise of his enemies cooped up the British army at 



DICTATION AND INDEPENDENT THOUGHT 101 

Yorktown and forced its surrender. The English had tried to 
make a combination and failed. Washington, by cooperating 
successfully with widely separated forces, brought the war 
to an end. In fact, this ability of Washington to work out suc- 
cessfully this grand scheme of cooperation of widely sepa- 
rated forces marks his special genius as a commander. 

In both of the great campaigns of the Revolution, there- 
fore, final and overwhelming success was won by the Ameri- 
cans through cooperation, and disaster fell upon British 
arms because of their failure to cooperate. 

A comparison of these campaigns on the basis of the study 
of the maps, showing the location and movements of armies, 
the effects of battles, and the cooperating plans, enables the 
children to form their own judgments of the campaigns and 
their leaders. 



CHAPTER V 

HOW TO GET SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 

Independent thinking and self-reliant effort are set 
forth, in the preceding chapter, as first-class achieve- 
ments in study. So important are these qualities in the 
student that we must hunt out the means of achieving 
them. An analysis and discussion of two other forms 
of contradiction may put into our hands just the means 
we require for developing these superior mental quali- 
ties. The first falls under the heading, "Help and Self- 
Help," the second has the title, "Interest and Effort." 

I. HELP AND SELF-HELP 

It is usually regarded as the peculiar function of the 
teacher to help children in their immature efforts at 
learning. Older pupils, and even adults who keep up 
their studies, require guidance and assistance in their 
thinking. As a little child, learning to walk, needs the 
encouragement and timely help of parents, so it is, 
more or less, with all classes of pupils in their studies. 
Otherwise, we could dispense with the costly luxury of 
the teacher. Every day, in the school, children are 
coming face to face with new and untried problems, 
things they have not studied before. The school inten- 
tionally puts these difficulties in their path day by day, 
and then leads them to the attack. But textbooks are 
not so carefully graded that children can be left to their 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 103 

own resources in their use. In the assignment of the 
lesson the teacher will foresee the difficulty and give 
special direction to effort. In a sixth-grade reading- 
lesson on Rip Van Winkle, he may put a list of the un- 
usual words on the blackboard and give a preliminary 
drill on their pronunciation and meaning. The awk- 
ward and blundering attempts of children can be fore- 
stalled and their energy poured into right channels. 
Misdirected effort in children produces discouragement 
and friction and leads to a feeling of antagonism and 
repulsion to studies. Slow pupils, and even smart ones, 
become discouraged and moody. A teacher of unusual 
mental strength and versatility remarked to me that, 
as a boy in school, he was completely discouraged by 
being plunged into a subject that was too difficult, and 
he considered seriously the abandonment of his studies. 
It is the business of the teacher to prevent these de- 
pressing situations, to keep up the spirit of children by 
throwing light upon the road to be traversed. 

Strewn all along the pathway of the school course 
are children who do not know how to study. They have 
mental strength, but they know not how to use it. They 
have not, in some cases, learned how to pay attention, 
how to concentrate their mental energy. Much less 
have they learned how to see relations, to help them- 
selves by mental devices, to think. Much time is 
wasted by letting them flounder in their awkward, 
helpless ways. The teacher should be an expert in pre- 
venting and curing mental awkwardness. Many chil- 
dren are mental stutterers. They require a kindly, 



104 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

helpful, patient teacher to relieve their nervous strain 
and set their thought free. Socrates claimed that he 
could not teach people anything directly : he was only 
a helper: he could assist them in avoiding mistakes, in 
escaping pitfalls: he was only a more thoughtful and 
prudent guide to his disciples. By means of keen ques- 
tions, illustrations, supposed arguments, and cutting 
irony, he could put people's thoughts into motion. His 
chief function, it seems, was to get people to use their 
minds, to stand alone, and, little by little, to walk 
mentally on their own feet. Such was his success in his 
own peculiar process of helping people to learn how to 
think that he stands almost without a parallel among 
teachers. 

The willingness to be helpful to children expresses 
the true spirit and quality of the teacher. It is the 
natural parental attitude toward those who need sym- 
pathy and guidance. In the long pathway from infancy 
through childhood and youth to maturity, a child 
should be well guided, he should be mentally and mor- 
ally well nurtured. This is a work of kindly, intelligent 
devotion to others. To be wisely helpful to children as 
they grow is to confer upon them unselfishly the best 
gifts that human beings may bestow. Teachers like 
Pestalozzi, David Livingstone, Arnold of Rugby, 
Froebel, Vittorino da Feltre, and Paul the Apostle re- 
present this highest kind of service. It involves far more 
than intellectual training. Especially in their moral 
growth, children halt and stumble. They need friendly 
and helpful guidance. A kind-hearted sympathy and 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 105 

even parental solicitude are alone adequate to supply 
the necessities of human nature as it struggles forward. 
On the other hand, some of our wise, oracular friends 
tell us that we help children too much. Like young 
mothers with their infants, we are over-eager and too 
solicitous to run to their aid. They do not need our 
help. They are much better off without it. They would 
better stand alone, or, if need be, fall, rather than de- 
pend so much upon support. We stand close behind 
and bolster them up so constantly in their trials that 
they lose the power of self-help. They are being helped 
into helplessness, as Colonel Parker used to say. We 
grade up the valleys and we level down the hills till 
there are no steep grades to climb. Our textbooks are 
graded with painstaking care. The skillful teacher 
moves in between the textbook lessons and smooths 
out the intervening rough places. To complete the 
process of helping, the parents at home work out the 
problems for the children (sometimes, fortunately, in 
the wrong way) . This over-helpful spirit easily runs to 
extremes. The more progressive and up-to-date the 
school, the more experienced and high-priced the 
teacher, the more complete the equipment, the more 
danger, perhaps, that children will lose in self-reliance, 
in native, independent strength. We should always be 
on our guard against helping too much. In some of our 
so-called best schools, we have such a coddling tender- 
ness for even older children that their mental anatomy 
becomes soft and flabby. A strapping boy of fourteen 
cannot work the simplest problem in percentage with- 



106 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

out help. He is seized with a fit of the "can'ts." A 
point-blank refusal on the part of the teacher to help 
such a boy is the best medicine in the whole knapsack. 
Such luckless boys and girls require to be jolted. They 
need a curry-comb rather than a soft sponge. The old 
log schoolhouse, with the older boys sitting outdoors on 
a log working out their sums without help or interfer- 
ence from the teacher, is much better than our over- 
helpful contrivances. We have n't any good use for 
mental mollycoddles. 

How shall children be trained to meet difficulties, 
relying upon their own resources? Not by perpetual 
help, but by a perpetual avoidance, if possible, of giv- 
ing needless help. Every study, well arranged, should 
supply a series of problems, so ordered that a child of 
normal ability can work them out with little help. Let 
not the teacher spoil this well-arranged program by 
intruding his kind offices at every point. The children 
themselves should be trained to resent this kind of help. 
They should take pride in helping themselves. Such 
injudicious helping is a blunder that spoils "the best 
laid schemes o' mice and men." When a teacher is bent 
on this sort of mischief there is no remedy for it except 
to get another and better teacher. 

A nine-year-old girl had acquired this habit of de- 
pendence. She and the teacher were close friends. The 
latter was always at hand to help the girl in her diffi- 
culties. Soon it was observed that in class instruction 
the girl copied her problems from other children at the 
board. She was developing a decided deficiency in 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 107 

arithmetic, not from lack of ability, but from too much 
help. Under another teacher she overcame this weak- 
ness and developed self-reliance. In such cases the 
teacher should not be too friendly and accommodat- 
ing. He should withdraw his favors and keep aloof. It 
is his function, as much as possible, to make himself 
unnecessary, to encourage and even require children 
to do their own tasks, with as little assistance as may be. 
Not how much can the teacher help, but how much can 
the children do without help, is the important question. 
The teacher with his abundant knowledge and inter- 
est in the subject is tempted to pour out his informa- 
tion liberally and show up its important relations and 
meanings. Students also enjoy such a feast and respond 
to the enthusiasm and enlarged views of a wide-awake 
teacher. Such interesting episodes in class instruction 
are extremely valuable in keeping up the class spirit 
and in maintaining a strong interest. But the zeal of 
the instructor for exploiting his own views should not 
monopolize the class period to such a degree that stu- 
dents lose the opportunity for full and adequate ex- 
pression of their ideas in mastering and organizing the 
materials. Nothing can take the place of the student's 
own independent effort to comprehend and fitly express 
the content of the lesson. The more this obligation is 
thrown back upon him, the more he accomplishes it by 
his own unaided resources, the more valuable are the 
results. This doctrine of self-help applies to all sorts of 
studies and to many phases of instruction. In the very 
first primary grade, we have some of the strong demon- 



108 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

strations of this spirit of self-reliance, this willingness 
to plunge into a task to master it in full confidence in 
one's own power. This occurs, for example, in the 
phonic interpretation of new words in reading-lessons. 
As we advance in the grades, this confident self-reliance 
should steadily increase, so that boys and girls grow 
more resolute in meeting their later tasks and difficul- 
ties. The failure to accomplish this is itself a severe 
criticism of our system. 

From what has been said before about the teacher as 
a helper, we hardly need to affirm that this principle of 
self-help, „ alone, is wholly inadequate to govern the 
teacher's method. He who simply makes a flat refusal 
to help children in their difficulties and struggles is too 
crude and undiscriminating to serve as a teacher. 

We have, then, two evenly balanced, almost contra- 
dictory statements as follows : (1) The teacher is in his 
very function and nature an ever-present helper. (2) 
The true teacher is ever on the alert to avoid giving 
help. He is perpetually seeking means of throwing the 
burden of effort back upon the pupil. Can a thought- 
ful mind reconcile these statements not merely in the- 
ory, but also in school practice? Can we find a middle 
ground between those who help all the time and those 
who systematically refuse to help? To strike this mid- 
dle line between too much and too little requires a 
ripened tact and wisdom in the instructor. It is quite 
easy to say, "I am always ready to help"; and some 
teachers are naturally so inclined. It is equally easy to 
say, "I refuse to help you at all"; and some teachers 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 109 

naturally feel and act in this spirit. But it is the finest 
test of the teacher's quality to judge wisely and to help 
only here and there at the moment of real need. 

It is implied in the above treatment that teachers 
naturally incline to one side or the other of this di- 
lemma; that they are, by temperament, either too will- 
ing to help children or too abrupt in refusing help. If 
so, each teacher must solve this problem for himself. 
In order to secure a proper balance, he must deliber- 
ately throw more weight on one side of the scale. He 
must temper his zeal on one side and put more strength 
into the other. He will have to make himself over so as 
to become a good schoolmaster. 

We may illustrate by examples how the teacher is to 
balance up the account. In the application of princi- 
ples already learned, we usually say that it is a mark of 
poor judgment in a teacher to work out a problem for a 
pupil. First see to it that the facts and conditions of 
the problem are made clear: then throw the burden of 
thought back upon the pupil. If it is a question as to 
the difference in longitude between two places, a dia- 
gram or map may be necessary to cause the facts to 
stand out clearly: then let the child work it out, but 
abstain from doing this part of his thinking for him. It 
is the business of teachers to get the material of knowl- 
edge before a child in such a form and order that it 
measures up to his ability : then turn his thought loose 
upon it to work independently. The teacher should 
cultivate a deliberate and thoughtful attitude, a con- 
stant watchfulness and circumspection, which fits his 



110 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

treatment into each child's needs. One child requires 
help at a point where another would be damaged by it. 
The study period is a good time to learn to help chil- 
dren properly, because one can deal with them indi- 
vidually according to personal qualities and needs. 

This is the peculiar difficulty which the teacher must 
master for himself — how to draw this fine line of de- 
marcation between too much and too little. We need 
the rigor of a simple age in our schools. It is to be pre- 
supposed that children have brain-power and the class- 
room is the place to touch off this energy by suggestion. 
Self-reliance, the power and the habit of helping one's 
self, is the essential thing, and the teacher is a means 
for realizing, not for thwarting, this result. This con- 
clusion brings us back to our starting-point at the be- 
ginning of this chapter, to the notion of independent 
thought. 

Permissible and effective ways of helping children 

1. One of the means of helping and encouraging 
children in their tasks is almost unconsciously brought 
about by a free and ready use, by the teacher himself, 
of the very exercises and modes of expression for which 
the children are held responsible. For example, if the 
teacher writes well and easily on the blackboard, the 
children admire it and almost unconsciously adopt his 
style. If the teacher sketches maps and diagrams on 
the blackboard with manifest success in illustrating 
topics in geography, his easy use of drawing as a natu- 
ral means of expression is adopted and practiced by 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 111 

the children. If a teacher occasionally reads well a 
telling passage in the literature lesson, it stirs the feel- 
ings and sets the pace for the children. Likewise artis- 
tic drawing, singing, clear and distinct speaking work 
their natural effects. Everything, almost, that the 
teacher does well and naturally is a helpful guide and 
stimulus. It aids and encourages children over many 
hard places. 

2. By insisting on a complete mastery of the ele- 
mentary facts and ideas in any study, the teacher can 
smooth the way through numerous hardships and diffi- 
cult problems in later study. Thus the elementary 
facts in the number tables, factoring, and the aliquot 
parts, if fully mastered, will ease the work through all 
the grades and through life. Likewise, an absolute 
mastery of inflections, paradigms, and vocabularies in 
the first year's Latin will give smooth sailing during 
the following years. Let the teacher use all his skill and 
influence in getting a complete mastery of the basal 
elements of every study. 

3. In the first elementary treatment of any topic the 
use of simple, clear, concrete illustrations, which give 
positive demonstration to the new ideas, furnishes a 
sound basis for future study. For example, pictures and 
diagrams to show how a canal lock is operated; a dia- 
gram showing the main shaft and galleries of a gold 
mine; a full description, with maps, drawings, and pic- 
tures, of an irrigation project, like the Salt River pro- 
ject in Arizona; a series of clear, illustrative sentences 
showing the use of adverbial clauses in grammar. 



112 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

4. When certain tasks are assigned, such as a map- 
drawing, a composition, or a construction in wood, we 
may point out and warn against definite mistakes that 
are likely to be made; such mistakes, for example, as 
were made in a similar previous lesson. While the work 
is in progress, they should be criticized on just these 
points so as to generate the right habit. 

5. Children are much encouraged by receiving dis- 
criminating approval of their honest effort and of their 
progress and success. Their success, however, should 
be judged according to their individual ability and 
effort. Sometimes it is a great encouragement to chil- 
dren to have some of their faults overlooked. If they 
are trying hard and are making progress in the essen- 
tials, they should be freely encouraged. 

6. In trying to master difficult or complicated topics, 
children should be shown how to pick out the main 
issues, how to discriminate between a few strong cen- 
ters of thought and the numerous subordinate facts 
and details. In the assignment of a textbook lesson the 
instructor may take up one paragraph after another 
and lead the children to see that a short phrase or 
sentence expresses the gist of each important section or 
paragraph. He may also glance through these succes- 
sive headings and reveal a simple organization of the 
whole subject. Children are naturally weak in this 
power to clarify and organize materials in a complex 
subject. This is one way of teaching them how to study, 
how to think, how to economize time in study, i.e., by 
picking out essentials and then mastering them. 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 113 

7. One important means of increasing the self-reli- 
ance of children is to be constantly throwing respon- 
sibility upon them for doing well the things they can 
do. Require them, for example, to give full and ade- 
quate statements of topics that have been clearly pre- 
sented and understood. Encourage them to sketch and 
draw freely at the blackboard as a means of expression. 
Push them into dramatization. We need to show real 
leadership and tact in getting them to take ventures, 
to plunge in, to participate freely in all that is going on. 
To inspire them with courage is an important thing. 

8. In taking up new subjects of study, as in the first 
year of the high school, teachers should devise new and 
interesting modes of approach. Now subjects often 
seem so obscure and inscrutable that children are com- 
pletely discouraged before they have a chance to find 
out what they can do. Latin, at first, seems so strange 
and foreign to many children that they are defeated be- 
fore their powers are brought into action. Psychology 
in normal schools is often a bugbear because it is so 
strange that students become homesick for something 
familiar. Map-drawing and composition, when de- 
manded from children without helpful introduction 
and suggestion, cause too much of fretful anxiety and 
worry. In composition, especially, there is necessity 
for suggesting interesting topics and modes of treat- 
ment, with examples. See that children are supplied 
with sources of information, and with some outline or 
plan of treatment. Teachers forget that children may 
waste much time and energy in useless worrying. 



114 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

9. We can help and strengthen children in their 
basal lines of thought by steadily requiring them to 
make use and application of what they have learned in 
previous years and in other studies. The treasures of a 
child's past experiences and acquired knowledge should 
be perpetually drawn upon in new lessons. Keep chil- 
dren constantly looking back to their previous lessons 
for help in their difficulties. Arithmetic is underlaid 
with certain simple facts and processes which run 
through the entire course. To keep up this continuity 
of processes through the whole of arithmetic, by daily 
association of lessons with past work, gives a sound 
mastery and teaches children how to make confident 
use of their knowledge and ability. Comparisons of 
later geographical topics (in Europe) with previous 
similar topics (on America) bring out very significant 
ideas and also organize a child's increasing stores into 
logical and rational series and groupings. Geography 
and history are so interdependent that their topics 
require the tracing-out of numerous lines of association 
throughout the course of study. Children are slow to 
make these important thought connections unless the 
teacher is perpetually alert to require it. This is a 
higher phase of independent thinking into which chil- 
dren can be led gradually. 

10. In some cases it is necessary to overcome the 
acquired and settled prejudices of children against 
certain studies. These hostile feelings spring from sev- 
eral sources — from a child's own failures or discour- 
agements, from home opinions and criticisms, from 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 115 

prevailing sentiments among school children and in 
the community. It may be advisable to have a free and 
friendly talk with a grammar-grade class on this ques- 
tion. Why is it worth while to study grammar? In 
such a discussion narrowness and dogmatism on the 
teacher's part are out of place. Give practical illustra- 
tions of what a business man requires in his own cor- 
respondence. How much knowledge of grammar does 
a typewriter need? Illustrate how grammar aids in 
correcting our own mistakes. Admit that there are 
many distinctions in grammar that are of little or no 
practical use. Tell the story of Lincoln's experience 
in securing a grammar after considerable difficulty and 
his careful study of it. Later he became very proficient 
in the use of language. 

1 1 . One of the best proofs that children are doing self- 
reliant, independent thinking is seen in the thoughtful 
questions they ask when once interested in a growing 
subject. In the progressive development of a valu- 
able idea the children are often aroused to vigorous, 
self-active inquiry. This is a critical time for the 
teacher. Does she know how to deal with these lively 
questions as they come pouring in? Too much haste in 
answering them would check and weaken the thought 
movement. Guide them forward toward the main 
goal, but let them think it out for themselves. Suggest 
other facts and considerations which they have left out 
of mind. To guide such a discussion with skill is the 
mark of a prudent instruction. I have lately heard sev- 
eral such lively discussions in classes where the teacher 



116 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

failed to guide the arguments and to organize the re- 
sults. In order to handle such a situation the teacher 
must have a full knowledge and a clear organization so 
as to see quickly where to place a question, and what it 
leads to. There are, then, two stages in such thought 
exercises : first, the awakening of children to active dis- 
cussion and questioning; second, reinforcing and guid- 
ing this thought energy toward valuable conclusions. 

Wrong ways of helping children 

1. In some cases the teacher's kindness of heart 
prompts her to recite the lesson for the child if the latter 
fails. "What is the capital of Illinois?" "Springfield, 
is n't it?" Or, if the pupil is halting or fragmentary in 
his answers, the teacher concludes the matter by giving 
a full statement. "Tell about the purchase of Louisi- 
ana." Pupil — "Jefferson bought Louisiana from 
Napoleon, paying several million dollars for it." 
Teacher — "You mean that Jefferson, seeing how 
eager the people of the Southwest were to get posses- 
sion of the mouth of the Mississippi River, authorized 
our commissioners in Paris, Livingston and Monroe, to 
purchase New Orleans and a small strip at the mouth 
of the river. But the commissioners were offered, by 
Napoleon, the whole of Louisiana Territory for 
$15,000,000, and they boldly accepted it." Pupil — 
Yes, that 's what I meant." This kind of reciting, with 
variations of more or less help from the teacher, is per- 
haps too common. 

Teachers are not willing to let pupils fail, and so 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 117 

they ease up the situation by suggestions and by direct 
help. But children who have not learned their lesson, 
for no good reason, should be allowed to fail, — yes, to 
fail completely and absolutely; and they ought to feel 
the shame of it. While those who can recite should be 
encouraged and rewarded. 

2. Another mode of helping children excessively is 
that of asking too many easy questions, by trying first 
one form of question and then another, by suggestions 
and modifications to see if some sort of an answer can 
be extracted from a child. Teacher — "What was the 
effect of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill?" (Pause.) "You 
know about the Missouri Compromise?" (Pause.) 
"What about slaves in the Territories?" — "How 
were the people in a Territory to decide the question of 
slavery? " — "What would happen when the Territory 
was admitted as a State?" In such case as this the 
mere naming of a topic by the teacher ought to be suffi- 
cient. If the pupil has studied his lesson, let him recite 
the whole topic without interruption and without ques- 
tions unless serious blunders appear. Students should 
be required to recite lessons in full, stating all essential 
facts without aid. This requirement is fundamental. 

3. It is quite a common fault in reading-lessons and 
in other subjects for the teacher to pronounce new and 
difficult words for the pupil as they come up in the les- 
son. This is an infringement of the right of the child to 
help himself. We now know that children in the second 
and third grade (and often in the first), if they have, 
been properly drilled in the use of phonic sounds and in 



118 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

combining them, can quickly and gladly help them- 
selves out of most difficulties. Such children like to 
meet new words and to try their strength upon them. 
If primary children can do this, how much more appro- 
priate is this requirement for older children. They 
have also the dictionary with which to help themselves. 
This helplessness of children in the face of small diffi- 
culties is a serious criticism of our teachers. When they 
meet real difficulties in grammar and arithmetic and 
composition, how will they bear themselves? Teachers 
should insistently and perpetually train children to 
self-reliance, to real effort to do things. 

4. By patching up children's faulty work in a variety 
of ways, teachers lower their standards, blur over de- 
fects, and cultivate a sort of deception as to the real 
character and ability of children to do things. In cor- 
recting spelling-lessons, in problems set for arithmetic, 
in constructive exercises, in drawing, in composition, 
where the work is supposed to be entirely the child's 
own, correction and help are sometimes rendered by 
the teacher, while the results are offered as the child's 
independent work. Be careful to let the pupil's work 
stand clearly for just what it is. 

Combined with this carelessness in slurring over and 
correcting defects in work is often a disposition to treat 
children indulgently, to overlook the faults of neglect 
and laziness. This tendency easily develops into ex- 
cuses for deception and cheating. The boundaries be- 
tween truth and dishonesty are blurred over. 

5. In the home and the school children are often 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 119 

helped into careless, slovenly ways by not being held 
responsible for completing their work satisfactorily, 
and then for cleaning up or setting things in order after 
it is finished. A little girl of four years was required by 
her mother to collect her scattered playthings and to 
clean up the muss she had left on the floor. The child 
replied to this request, "Mamma, do you know that 
cleaning up a muss is my favorite hateful? " But clean- 
ing up the muss and putting things in order is a neces- 
sary part of every child's training. To step in and re- 
lieve a child of such duties is a faulty kind of helping. 
It is helping into bad habits. 

6. One of Herbert Spencer's fundamental principles 
is that we should allow people to suffer the natural 
penalties of their failings. If a child is troublesome on 
the playground, he should lose his play. If he is care- 
less in scattering his playthings, he should put them in 
order. If he wastes his study time, he should make it 
up at other times. Teachers should follow this precept 
and not shield children from the results of their own 
faults and carelessness. The schoolroom is an excellent 
field in which to try out this principle. When school- 
work is properly arranged, it develops in close sequence. 
The later work depends upon the earlier. Failure to 
do one's duty one day revenges itself the next. The 
teacher should let children feel the full force of these 
natural penalties, modifying his treatment in case of 
sickness or other imperative causes. Progress in stud- 
ies should be orderly and systematic and as little sub- 
ject to whim or accident as possible. This orderly 



120 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

development of knowledge and habit in thinking and 
acting is the basis of success. The best help a teacher 
can render the pupil is steady consistency in holding 
to reasonable requirements in mastering lessons, in 
using one's previous knowledge. 

II. INTEREST AND EFFORT 

A second controversy whose proper settlement may 
strengthen our plans for securing self-activity and 
independence of thought is the recent conflict about 
interest and effort. The question is, How shall we get 
vigorous, self-reliant thinking? The advocates of inter- 
est as an energizing factor in study, claim just this 
quality in their doctrine of interest. On the other side 
the defenders of the long-established doctrine of severe 
discipline, of sheer will effort, in meeting difficulties, 
regarded this idea of effort as the real basis for sound 
mental training. 

Twenty years ago and for some years after there was 
a sharp controversy between the two parties. On the 
one side, the natural, genuine interests of children in 
school studies were offered as a strong motive for 
effort in acquiring knowledge. Studies which are suited 
to the age and understanding of children, when prop- 
erly presented and discussed, are said to be agreeable 
and, in many cases, absorbingly interesting. Such, for 
example, are the fairy tales and heroic stories, tales of 
adventure and pioneer life, the simple biographies of 
strong characters, also many ballads and poems, and 
humorous tales and songs. Nature-study and outdoor 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 121 

excursions, many live topics in geography and travel, 
and shop-work are full of real meaning and interest to 
children. Even language, arithmetic, and grammar, 
in the hands of a teacher who knows how to use them 
and awaken the practical insight of children, are not 
dull and stupid exercises. These natural interests of 
children in the content of school studies are based upon 
instincts that ripen in children at successive periods or 
stages of childhood. Boys and girls of eight to ten like 
the hero tales, earlier still the fairy tales, etc. As these 
instincts ripen, they call for certain classes of appro- 
priate material. It is important to select the fitting 
subject-matter at each period; for the impulses thus 
awakened are the beginnings of interests that grow and 
strengthen throughout life. The development of these 
studies into permanent interests which outlast school 
days is declared to be a character-shaping influence of 
prime importance. A child who takes no interest in his 
school exercises, who regards them as a bore, who gets 
a positive dislike for his studies, is almost a hopeless 
case. Without developing in a boy strong and valuable 
interest in some subject, it is impossible to find any 
center upon which to organize his character. 

The development of a many-sided interest in the 
best studies and the best forms of activity was set up 
by Herbart and his disciples as the goal of instruction. 
To awaken and establish such interests in a child's 
mental life and habits is an assurance that he will grow 
in strength and independence of thought. Through the 
arousing of such natural interests his whole being is 



122 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

involved, his own personality is touched and molded at 
the center. Such interests, therefore, are not superfi- 
cial and shallow, but deep and permanent. Without 
developing such personal interests, education is not 
only one-sided, it is lacking in the right spirit. It has 
no heartiness. It is formal and mechanical. It lacks 
human and humanizing quality. All knowledge needs 
to be touched with interest in order to function. Inter- 
est has lubricating, and, at the same time energizing, 
quality. Boys and girls who have felt the touch of a 
real interest in a strong branch of study have awakened 
to a true intellectual life. 

The question of adjusting the materials of knowledge 
in the various studies to the progressively developing 
interests and activities of children has opened up a 
whole series of basal problems in shaping the course of 
study. Interest has thus become one of the important 
tests to which all knowledge material must be sub- 
jected. A more intimate knowledge of child nature and 
of its stages of development is an essential part of this 
strong educational movement. 

On the other hand, the doctrine of severe effort, of 
the discipline of the will to overcome hard tasks, has 
long prevailed in the schools as the dominant theory of 
education. It has been a sort of intellectual rough-rider 
doctrine, a heroic medicine that purges the mind of its 
weaknesses and steels the intellectual and volitional 
fibers to more strenuous and untiring effort. Compared 
with this the doctrine of interest is but a feeble, emo- 
tional, substitute. A great many stalwart teachers of 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 123 

the conservative group, in higher and lower schools, 
are firmly convinced that the chief value of studies lies 
in a severe and rigorous discipline in essentially dis- 
agreeable tasks. In the old classical schools which pre- 
vailed for centuries in Europe and in America this 
principle of hard training was fundamental. Mathe- 
matics in our secondary schools and colleges stood for 
the same idea of brawny, intellectual strenuosity. 
Arithmetic and grammar in the common school were 
long held in reverence because they were tough studies, 
because they were hard and painful in the process of 
mastering. Education in this sense was an intellectual 
gymnastic of the severest sort. 

Such studies, severely handled, are a means of ener- 
gizing and fortifying the will, of building up and 
strengthening character. From this point of view the 
essence of character is strength of will, and the disci- 
pline of studies should center in this one aim. This 
kind of training relates itself also very closely to the 
needs of life. Life itself is made up of struggles and 
hardships. It demands fighting qualities, strength of 
will and stubbornness of purpose. Education should 
train children not for a life of ease and gratification, 
but for toil and hardship. This is a very simple doc- 
trine, but it goes at the heart of the matter and sees life 
as it is and not as it might be. This doctrine of strenu- 
ous, sustained will-power or effort is one that appeals 
to strong, ambitious minds. It sets up high standards 
of achievement and balks at nothing in the way of 
hardship and toil. It contains a strong element of the 



124 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

heroic, the unsubduable. The free man is the one who 
has a strong will, free to think, free to act, and strong 
in execution. 

This theory of education has had a long history, has 
dominated the best courses of study, and has produced 
thousands of the world's leaders, who have had full 
confidence in the virtue of such a training. William 
James, the psychologist, in his "Talks to Teachers," 
while granting much to the opposing doctrine of inter- 
est, returns with special emphasis to the older doctrine 
of effort, of stubborn will-power exerted against ob- 
stacles and disagreeable tasks. He even advises us to 
do something disagreeable every day as a mental dis- 
cipline, as a severe training in mental and moral hardi- 
hood. Again, while a genuine interest is a desirable 
adjunct and a strong reinforcement in all studies, it 
may be generally admitted that there are times when 
sheer will, unsupported by direct interest, must fight 
out the battle alone. This demand for strong, inde- 
pendent will is met with in every important study and 
at frequent intervals, so that this mental attitude must 
be cultivated and exercised. 

An explanation of the conservative opposition to 
the doctrine of interest is found in the fact that the 
older pedagogy was profoundly distrustful of the feel- 
ings, — i.e., of the emotional nature. The feelings were 
looked upon as the fluctuating, unstable element in 
human nature; intellect and will, on the other hand, as 
reliable and stable, and hence as properly controlling 
and dominant. Interest, which is a phase of feeling, 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 125 

was identified with the idea of a soft pedagogy, with a 
sugar-coating process of instruction, with pleasing and 
entertaining programs. 

Our recent psychology is far more respectful in its 
attitude toward the feelings. It looks upon the feel- 
ings, in large measure, as an essential and noble part of 
human nature, powerfully and rightfully influencing 
every phase of life and playing significantly into all 
forms of study. The feelings are, at their best, the 
noblest expressions of the human spirit. A pedagogy, 
therefore, which ignores the feelings, or finds in them 
only a dangerous and antagonistic power, is very one- 
sided and lame. It does not bring into its system of 
thought the beneficent harmony of the whole mental 
organism, — intellect, feeling, and will. 

In the past, the doctrine of the severe discipline of 
the will has long had a controlling influence in shaping 
courses of study and methods of teaching. It is now the 
favored theory of many strong teachers. But in recent 
years the doctrine of interest, allied to child-study and 
the later developments of psychology, has broken in 
upon this older theory of hardship and severity, de- 
manding a reorganization of courses of study and of 
instruction. One main prop of the older theory of will- 
discipline was removed when the long prevailing no- 
tion of distinct mental faculties, as accepted by the 
older psychology, was attacked and discredited. Our 
present psychology rejects the notion that the mind 
consists of separate mental faculties, like memory and 
will, which can be isolated and separately trained and 



126 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

strengthened. Angell's psychology, for example, does 
not recognize the will as an entirely distinct form of 
mental action, but as a product of the evolution of all 
the mental life, including the feelings. 

Again, the notion that the mind is best trained by 
doing tasks that are irksome and disagreeable was long 
regarded as a part of the necessary discipline of life, 
and without such mental hardship children would be 
ill-prepared to face life's real problems. In reply to 
this it may be said that the people who are doing the 
best work in the world are those who are interested, 
are heart and soul absorbed in their enterprises. On 
the contrary, the dull, stupid, uninterested worker is 
the hopeless case. We have no desire, whatever, to 
develop in society a lot of drudges. What we need is 
persons in every employment who are thoroughly 
interested in their work, — enthusiasts, artists, if you 
please, — not people who are working hopelessly, 
keeping at their tasks by sheer exercise of will, but 
people who look forward, with happy faces and inter- 
est, upon their tasks. In the severe practical duties of 
life, therefore, to depend mainly upon will and stub- 
bornness in overcoming difficulties is a friction-pro- 
ducing, nerve-racking, uneconomic method of running 
the mental machinery. It makes a virtue of mere hard- 
ship. As Lowell says, why should we go about to make 
life duller than it is? Shall we make school duller than 
life itself, and then call it preparation for life? The one- 
sidedness of the old disciplinary pedagogy consisted in 
making this dismal routine of painful effort the rule 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 127 

rather than the exception. It alone was made the 
standard upon which the value of studies for a com- 
plete curriculum was measured. We can well afford to 
travel through tunnels and darkness for short dis- 
tances, but we are unwilling to be in the dark all the 
time: unless we enjoy being miserable and in making 
others, especially the young, equally unhappy. 

In the long history of education and in the present 
conflicting attitudes of practical teachers, these oppos- 
ing theories of training stand out in sharp contrast; 
first, the notion of severe and painful hardship in 
study, second, a many-sided and growing interest in 
the content of school studies. Many conservative 
teachers in higher and lower schools still hold that the 
chief value of studies is in giving a severe and rigorous 
mental discipline in essentially disagreeable tasks. The 
other party holds that a genuine interest in studies and 
motives based on interest furnish the life principle of 
the best instruction. 

The solution of this contradiction between opposing 
theories of instruction is not found in the acceptance 
of one and the rejection of the other. We must learn 
to do both things and to combine them as closely as 
possible in all important studies. Hard problems and 
more or less of painful effort in solving them must be 
met at almost every turn in a well-devised course of 
study. So much greater is the need for a growing inter- 
est in these very problems and in the further objects to 
which they lead. Hard problems are the very things in 
which children have the strongest interest if they are 



128 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

properly inducted into them. Interest does not imply 
an enfeebling and disintegration of mental powers, but 
rather a higher concentration of effort upon difficult 
tasks. Hard projects which require a good degree of 
courage, skill, persistence, and obstinacy are exactly 
suited to arouse the spirit of youth. 

What sort of a philosophy of life have those persons 
who imagine that the real achievements, the heroic 
enterprises of men and women, have been wrought out 
by strong-willed people without the powerful influ- 
ence of the feelings, sentiments, and strong emotions? 
What, for example, inspired David Livingstone to his 
strenuous labors in Africa? Can any one imagine that 
religious feeling and a lofty enthusiasm were any less 
significant in his life than his remarkable energy of 
will? Walter Scott was a man of dominant will; but his 
lively interest and generous enthusiasm are reflected in 
every line that he wrote. A strong will, not well bal- 
anced with fine feelings and sentiments, is a most dan- 
gerous quality in a human being. Why should the 
schools limit themselves fundamentally to the cultiva- 
tion of a strong will and ignore the wholesome, sweet- 
ening, humanizing interests and feelings? Why should 
the best part of human nature be left out of a school 
program? 

All studies swing back and forth, more or less, be- 
tween the interesting and uninteresting. The thing 
that saves us from despair is some worthy object or 
purpose that awakens our interest and beckons us on. 
A strong interest and a rugged will combine their forces 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 129 

and we are fully prepared to encounter and overcome 
obstacles. It is often remarked that a strong man 
accomplishes great tasks easily. His whole nature is 
enlisted in the task, his whole mind is energetic and 
operative, and not merely so-called pure will, which, if 
it were a possibility, would be an unfortunate and 
dangerous possession. 

Fortunately there is a much larger element of vital 
interest in most studies than the old pedagogy allowed. 
The strongest and best kind of interest is that which 
engages itself in the solution of important problems, 
and leads out along a progressive line of valuable 
thought. The teacher, in the organization of studies 
and in the mode of handling them, should become an 
expert in interesting children in these problems and in 
the difficult tasks which lead to their solution. He 
should awaken in children an ambitious response to 
such problems, which entice them to effort and yet 
hold their secrets in reserve. When interest is awak- 
ened in connection with real problems that belong to a 
child's life, there is a stirring of his energies that will 
help to carry him through many toilsome efforts. It is 
the interplay of interest and painful effort that gives 
the proper balance to studies and to theory and prac- 
tice in dealing with studies. 

Finally, we are not left to the uncertainties of theo- 
retical discussion and debate to settle the question 
whether these two opposing ideas, interest and effort, 
can be combined in teaching children. There are scores 
and hundreds of schoolrooms where the happy, eager, 



130 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

and earnest activity of children is an unmistakable 
proof that they are thoroughly interested and that 
they are exerting themselves to their full strength. Our 
curriculum has already absorbed into itself a large 
body of rich culture material from literature, geogra- 
phy, music, history, science, and art, which, beyond all 
controversy, has proved itself highly interesting and 
stimulating to the minds of children. The so-called 
disciplinary studies still remain, but they, too, are 
handled in the spirit of conquest on the basis of an 
aroused interest in the children. The one question that 
now remains is how to make the best combination of 
these strong elements of training. Every teacher should 
be fully aware of the value of each of these ideas, and 
work out in his own way the problem of combining 
them, and of reaping the benefit of their combined 
strength. 

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 

Self-activity and initiative 

The general progressive advance of a child is from 
dictated forms of study, gradually, but more and more, 
toward freedom and independent judgment. Yet even 
the mature scholar and thinker must first be sure of the 
facts which nature and science dictate as the basis of 
thought. In three practical ways, as shown in the pre- 
ceding chapters, the spirit of self-reliance, or the free 
exercise of one's thinking power can be cultivated : first, 
by the independent reproduction of dictated lessons; 
second, by self-help in the working-out of problems, 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 131 

throwing children back upon their own resources in 
dealing with difficulties; and third, by the combined 
spirit of interest and effort in attacking hard problems. 
The higher, more independent form of mental life 
aimed at in these ways we express by the word self- 
activity. 

A still higher and less easily reached phase of self- 
activity we may name " initiative." It is the ability to 
project new problems, to organize new and unclassified 
material, without help, on original lines, to lay out new 
trails. In selecting and writing themes, even this more 
difficult kind of originality can be cultivated. In de- 
signing complex constructive problems, initiative is 
necessary. In working out a strong, logical argument in 
debate, a similar power is developed. Initiative, in 
this sense, requires a degree of boldness and self-confi- 
dence to break loose from the accepted past and launch 
out for one's self upon the unknown. It is the spirit of 
the inventor and discoverer. It sets up new and diffi- 
cult problems and requires the same elements of knowl- 
edge, of interest and will-power, of self-reliance and 
boldness, that we have already described. 

Illustrations showing the need of strenuous and painful 
effort 

1. The beginnings of almost any new subject of study 
are apt to be strange, hard, and uninteresting, and 
call for a strong persistent effort; e.g., a new lan- 
guage like Latin or German; algebra, drawing. 
But new difficulties are constantly rising in any 



132 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

important study that require more or less of pain- 
ful effort. 

2. A hard, complicated problem in arithmetic de- 
mands steady, persistent effort for some length of 
time before it begins to clear up. Strong, volun- 
tary attention is required for this. 

3. The breaking-up of bad habits is painful. It re- 
quires strong, conscious effort. It demands a posi- 
tive and sometimes extreme effort of the will to 
turn away from habits that are associated with our 
pleasures; e.g., smoking, drinking, etc.; also the 
use of slang and ungrammatical English. 

4. Some of the important studies are generally re- 
garded as the least interesting, as arithmetic, 
grammar, geography, and spelling: yet they must 
be thoroughly mastered. Some of these serious 
difficulties lie at the beginning of the school course 
in primary grades. 

5. Reviews and drills are considered the dry part of 
studies, but they are the chief means of securing a 
complete mastery of studies. One must submit to 
strong and irksome discipline to accomplish such 
tasks. 

6. Carefulness in small details, and accuracy, as in 
drawing, arithmetic, composition, spelling, and 
bookkeeping, are very irksome to many people, 
but they are important habits for success in life 
and are gained by persistent and painstaking 
effort. 

7. Neatness, punctuality, and other secondary vir- 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 133 

tues are habits formed by self -discipline, by strong 
self-direction, by conscious struggle with one's 
own tendencies. 

8. Skill and perfection in any art are gained by per- 
sistent and often tedious exercise and repetition, 
as typewriting, piano-playing, telegraphy, proof- 
reading, public speaking. A high degree of skill 
either in thinking or doing is a result of more or less 
painful effort. 

9. The practical utility of certain important studies 
like grammar, drawing, algebra, and parts of 
arithmetic are not easily demonstrated to children. 
They must take them on faith and buckle to their 
tasks without special incentive. 

10. Disagreeable and even repulsive tasks are often 
met with in the home, in school, in social life, 
which we must learn to meet unflinchingly. They 
are a part of the warp and woof of daily life which 
we learn by hard effort to deal with. 

11. The will must learn to exercise a control over pas- 
sion and wrong impulses. Cost what it may of 
struggle and pain, we should be trained to self- 
control and inhibition of many tendencies. The 
power of inhibition is one of the fundamental needs 
of every person. 

Positive proofs of the value of interest in studies 

1. The absorbing interest shown by primary children 
in fairy tales and folklore brings several advan- 
tages. It makes the primary school a happy place 



134 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

for teacher and children. It is a means of drawing 
and holding the attention of children and of form- 
ing a habit of attention at a time when they have 
as yet little power of voluntary effort. The stories 
are the best and quickest means of enriching the 
common vocabulary of children and create a strong 
desire to learn to read these and other stories in 
books. 

2. In intermediate grades the delight which boys and 
girls take in Robinson Crusoe, Ulysses, William Tell, 
Siegfried, Kingsley's Greek Heroes s the stories of 
Boone, John Smith, Champlain, and other pio- 
neers, the Robin Hood stories, the Scottish Chiefs, 
and other hero tales, is the foundation of much of 
the best work in those grades. The dramatization 
of these stories brings out in the best way possible 
the expression and action of the characters. The 
mastery of oral and written language is strongly 
reinforced by the interest in these tales. An equally 
important effect is the growth of a strong tendency 
to home reading of the better class of books. Many 
children get a large part, and often the best part, 
of their education from this excellent habit of 
home reading. To interest children in the right 
kinds of books and to lead them into good habits of 
reading is one of the greatest achievements of the 
school. 

3. American history and biography are now being 
opened up to grammar-grade children in vigorous 
and hearty narratives that are attractive and in- 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 135 

structive. Strong, simple characters like Penn, 
Franklin, Roger Williams, Andrew Jackson, Paul 
Jones, Robert Fulton, Peter Cooper, and Webster 
stir up the best impulses in young people. The big 
enterprises of public improvement, the forward 
march of our pioneers and farmers across the conti- 
nent against Indians and natural barriers, the con- 
flict of great forces within our nation are absorbingly 
valuable thought material for boys and girls, and 
they are responding to it in fine spirit. Such topics 
open out into biography, into patriotic and social 
enterprises. They are the true education into citi- 
zenship, into a lively participation in public affairs. 

4. Geography, as it is now being studied, creates a 
strong interest in our national resources and the 
means of preserving and developing them, in books 
of travel and of foreign lands, in geology and the 
history of the earth's crust, in big plans for the 
rebuilding and sanitation of great cities, in irriga- 
tion projects, the regulation of rivers and the re- 
claiming of deserts. Its historical and social bear- 
ings are of equal value. 

5. Science and nature-study lead to practical excur- 
sions into fields and laboratories, to the enjoyment 
of plant, insect, and wild animal life, and weather 
phenomena. It is the entering wedge into notable 
wonders and utilities. Boys and girls who become 
heartily interested in one or more of these realms 
of nature have a rich life inheritance in store. 

6. The industrial arts, when combined with fine art, 



136 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

are the beginnings of a real respect for the common 
occupations. Such studies in the shop and studio 
develop the sympathies for the superior and beau- 
tiful things in daily life. Through the work of the 
schools many girls are learning to appreciate and 
enjoy skill and art in household employments. In 
the agricultural work of corn selection, testing, and 
cultivation according to scientific methods, many 
boys and their fathers are taking a new and en- 
larged view of the possibilities of farm life. 

7. Music as handled in many schools to-day is a joy to 
children. This growing appreciation for good 
music is a source of culture and gratification for life. 
It has a home value, a social value, and a public 
and national value. It is an appeal to the best 
emotional and aesthetic impulses. 

8. The devotion to physical training, in school danc- 
ing and games, in gymnastic practice and field 
sports and contests, is an unmistakable proof that 
we now believe, even in regular school exercises, 
in getting into close and vital relation with chil- 
dren's real enjoyments, with their strong social 
and physical impulses. 

9. Throughout the years of school training we are 
now introducing children to the many-sided attrac- 
tions and pleasures of the carefully selected litera- 
ture of all the historic peoples of the world, He- 
brews, Persians, Greeks, Germans, Italians, 
French, English, Scandinavians, and Americans. 
The selection, ordering, and mode of presentation 



SELF-ACTIVITY AND INITIATIVE 137 

of these materials are based primarily upon the 
natural interests and sympathies of children in the 
various grades. The unmistakable aim of all this 
labor with rich culture material is to get into close 
contact with a child's heart, with his aesthetic, 
emotional, and moral nature. The results have 
been encouraging in a high degree, in the aroused 
interest and permanent improvement of children. 
10. The development of a strong and lasting interest 
in any of the above-described domains of knowl- 
edge has shown very often a tendency to spread 
into other studies, to awaken intellectual effort in 
a widening circle. 



CHAPTER VI 

STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 
I. OVER-THOROUGHNESS AND SUPERFICIALITY 

The word "thoroughness" is supposed to denote a 
quality peculiar to first-class instruction, and "super- 
ficiality" may suggest its opposite. The real contrast is 
between over-thoroughness and superficiality in stud- 
ies. Teachers differ much as to what constitutes proper 
thoroughness. It implies, at least, a through-and- 
through mastery of what is studied. It is the result of 
severe application, rigorous thinking, reviews, and 
drills, with persistence in these things till complete 
knowledge is gained. In its final issue, it brings the 
power of adequate expression and readiness in turning 
knowledge into use. We all believe more or less in this 
kind of thoroughness, and we criticize and deprecate a 
training which has none of it. Superficial knowledge, 
on the contrary, is shallow, careless, and fleeting. It 
produces bad habits, and contributes to mental feeble- 
ness and fickleness. (The term "superficial" is not 
really adequate to express our meaning, for much of 
our knowledge is necessarily superficial, and not to be 
condemned for that reason.) 

On the other hand, we know that thoroughness is 
easily carried too far. It over-emphasizes little and 
unimportant things. It will, not seldom, strain at a 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 139 

gnat and swallow a camel. The schoolmaster, if he is 
thorough, is always in danger of becoming a pedant in 
trivial things. Over-thoroughness defeats its own pur- 
pose. In trying to do all things with equal thorough- 
ness, it fails to get the important things well done. In 
its punctilious care for dotting the i's and crossing the 
t's, it fails to bring out the proper structure and mean- 
ing of an important sentence or paragraph. It neglects 
the weightier matters of the law for trivialities. Triv- 
ial things, to be sure, sometimes rise into importance. 
In such exceptional cases they are no longer trivial. 
Excessive care in the spelling of unusual words is such a 
common error. We must be constantly estimating 
relative values and must lift the more important, signif- 
icant things into prominence for complete mastery. 
In a difficult reading-lesson from Irving's Rip Van Win- 
kle are found a score of unusual words, the very ones 
which the teacher is most apt to assign for a spelling- 
lesson. In the same reading-lesson (less than two pages 
in the first part of the story) is a list of common words 
which children need to know. The two lists are as fol- 
lows: (1) descendant, gallantly, chivalrous, accom- 
panied, popularity, conciliating, discipline, shrews, 
malleable, tribulation, termagant, tolerable, obsequious 
inherited, aversion, pestilent, insuperable, assiduity, 
patrimonial; (2) village, siege, character, obedient, 
neighbor, owing, spirit, fiery, furnace, curtain, sermons, 
virtues, patience, thrice, error, errands, piece, wrong, 
cabbages. Teachers are inclined to spend the time in 
drilling children upon the spelling of these uncommon 



140 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

words and to overlook or neglect the common words 
for which they will have frequent use in writing. This 
illustrates a not uncommon practice of emphasizing 
the unimportant and of neglecting the more important. 

In every good piece of literature may be found a 
list of rare and peculiar words which will never be 
taken up into the pupil's ordinary vocabulary for daily 
use. Exercises and drills upon the spelling of such 
words are a waste of time, time which is much needed 
for important studies. All studies are made up more or 
less of useful knowledge which has only this secondary 
value and should be touched upon more lightly. 

The fundamental and basal things must be thor- 
oughly mastered, through painstaking study and re- 
flection, by review and drill; but many facts and de- 
tails come into view in every important topic which it 
would be foolish carefully to memorize and master. 
And yet they are necessary to a proper treatment and 
understanding of the more important ideas. These 
lesser facts form a scaffolding which is serviceable while 
the main line of thought is being built up, but can fall 
away and disappear later on. The concrete details 
which are necessary, by way of illustration and signifi- 
cant background, to bring out an important and funda- 
mental truth, may afterwards be neglected and even 
forgotten, while the central thought still stands out 
with a clear meaning. We do not try to remember the 
details of particular problems with which we illustrate 
and master a rule in arithmetic. But we do hope to 
hold the principle or rule firmly in mind for future use. 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 141 

In working out the details of an important topic in 
geography, like the Erie Canal, it is not necessary to fix 
permanently in memory the number and size of locks, 
the exact dimensions of channels and viaducts, the 
figures representing numbers of men and expense of 
construction, revenue from tolls, etc. But the main 
ideas and results should be well fixed and retained. 

We should learn to focus attention more and more 
upon the important central thoughts and conclusions 
and main facts which support them, and to use the 
lesser details in their subordinate relation as accessory 
and transient in value. It is primarily a question of 
sifting out values and of constantly dropping off the 
lesser values and retaining the gold nuggets. It is a 
constant effort to get at essentials. In reading the best 
novels of Scott or Dickens or Tolstoy, we make no 
effort to remember the numerous details, the minutiae 
of conversation, description, and gossip, no matter how 
interesting and essential these are, temporarily, to the 
grasp of the whole spirit of the story. In reading the 
newspaper, we run over the sheet, picking out the 
more important items and ideas. In reading a strong 
magazine article, we aim not to retain all the facts and 
statements, but to select and grasp at main points. 
Likewise, in reading the great historians, poets, and 
orators, we receive strong and permanent impressions 
without responsibility for details of argument and 
description. 

One of the important habits for any good reader to 
acquire is that of culling essentials from books and of 



142 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

holding them fast. In all the important thought stud- 
ies of the school there is about every leading topic a 
wide fringe of environing facts and details which are 
necessary to a fruitful development of the main ideas, 
but upon which no time should be spent in reviews and 
drills. In reading larger histories, like those of Fiske 
and Wilson and Rhodes, as supplementary to text- 
books, we get great advantage from rich supplemental 
detail and concrete illustration without feeling any 
twinges of conscience for not reducing it to a careful 
memorized product. The reference readings in geogra- 
phy, literature, and history, which are brought in to 
support and enrich the text, have this passing value. 

The rugged disciplinary schoolmaster and painstak- 
ing teacher in the grades may resent this doctrine of 
superficiality in study, or better, perhaps, the transi- 
toriness of such knowledge. His rejoinder is that we 
already have too much careless, superficial learning: 
that side of the study problem is already too marked 
and will abundantly take care of itself, and, therefore, 
it can well be left out of account. Teachers should not 
be encouraged in this kind of superficiality. This reply 
is not adequate to meet the situation. There are essen- 
tial ideas or points in every subject that must be 
grasped with unmistakable sharpness and clearness. 
They should be thoroughly mastered and remembered. 
Other parts of temporary value, as illustrative or ex- 
planatory material, should be used in a subordinate 
way. It is not, therefore, a question of dropping out 
entirely these lesser details, but of knowing how to use 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 143 

them for temporary purposes. These items are essen- 
tial to the proper treatment and exhibition of the main 
points. In retelling a story in primary grades, a child 
will naturally omit many of the particulars and yet 
give a satisfactory reproduction. In this respect chil- 
dren differ greatly in power, and a teacher who holds 
all alike and strictly to a full rendering will have a 
needlessly hard task of it. 

Our course of study is too extensive. Children can- 
not master it in the time allotted even with good teach- 
ers, if this principle of thoroughness is to be applied 
rigorously to all parts alike. A wise mode of reduction 
and elimination is to sift out the few central, mani- 
festly important topics and to organize the whole 
course upon this much simpler basis. But in the lively 
and realistic treatment of any such important topic, a 
rich body of concrete, detailed facts, pictures, and illus- 
trative materials is necessary as a background and 
setting for the organizing idea. In the final drills and 
reproductions, much of this secondary material may be 
profitably omitted. 

SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT 

In the treatment of such important topics there is 
always a basis of leading points that should be thor- 
oughly planned out beforehand by the teacher and 
later mastered by careful study of relations, by com- 
parisons, and thoughtful reviews. But on the outer 
fringe of the discussion is a large body of illustrative 
facts that are a mere housing or scaffolding to the 



144 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

main ideas. Thoroughness in memorizing all these 
details would be pedantic in the extreme, and would 
ruin any course of study thus planned. 

From this viewpoint, it is not true that whatever is 
worth learning at all is worth learning well, that is, 
with complete thoroughness. A teacher, therefore, must 
learn to discriminate even among those facts which are 
necessary to a proper treatment of a topic. In good 
teaching the thought movement is a rapid shifting 
back and forth from the centrally important to the 
merely illustrative or secondary. The teacher must 
have a keen eye to discriminate between the main issue 
and the merely collateral and illustrative facts. All 
good treatment of thought materials is a process of col- 
lecting and weighing out of relative values, a stressing 
and repetition of the main ideas, and a relegation of 
the secondary facts of study to a transient service and 
early forgetfulness. Thus we get the true equipoise 
between opposite tendencies, i.e., between the extremes 
of over-thoroughness and superficiality. 

The word "superficiality" is somewhat obnoxious to 
good teachers, but in spite of this it may serve to point 
out an important distinction that teachers are called 
upon to make in judging values in the materials of 
study. Resentment against a term should not blind 
us to a fundamental necessity in proper instruction. 

This doctrine of transient and superficial knowledge 
may give offense to some, and an illustration may help 
to clear the atmosphere of misunderstanding. Suppose 
that a student is reporting to the class on the life of 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 145 

William Penn. For this purpose he has read the fol- 
lowing passage from John Fiske's Dutch and Quaker 
Colonies in America, vol. n : — 

In 1670, the admiral died, commending William with his 
last breath to the special care of the Duke of York. William 
was left in possession of an ample fortune, and devoted him- 
self to writing and preaching in defense and explanation 
of Quakerism. His learning and eloquence, with a certain 
sobriety of mind that qualified his mysticism, made many 
converts; nor is it unlikely that his social position and gallant 
bearing were helpful to the cause in some quarters. It was 
largely due to Penn that current opinion gradually ceased to 
confound the disciples of Fox with the rabble of Antinomian 
fanatics with which England was then familiar, and to put 
them upon a plane of respectability, by the side of Presby- 
terians and other dissenters. Again and again, while engaged 
in this work, Penn was thrown into prison and kept there for 
months, sometimes in the Tower, like a gentleman, but once 
for six months in noisome Newgate, along with common 
criminals. These penalties were mostly for breaking the 
Conventicle Act. The reports of the trials are often very 
interesting, by reason of the visible admiration felt by the 
honest judges for the brilliant prisoner. "I vow, Mr. Penn," 
quoth Sir John Robinson from the bench one day, "I vow, 
Mr. Penn, I am sorry for you. You are an ingenious gentle- 
man, all the world must allow you, and do allow you that; 
and you have a plentiful estate; why should you render your- 
self unhappy by associating with such a simple people?" 
Sometimes the prisoner's ingenuity and resourcefulness would 
baffle the prosecutor, and in despair of other means of catch- 
ing him the magistrate would tender the oath of allegience. 
But Penn's subtlety was matched by his boldness. Once 
when the judge insulted him by a remark derogatory to his 
character, the reply came quickly and sharply, "I trample 
thy slander as dirt under my feet!" And this boldness was 
equaled by his steadfastness. Once the Bishop of London 
sent word to him in the Tower, that he must either withdraw 
certain statements or die a prisoner. "Thou mayest tell him," 
said Penn to the messenger, "that my prison shall be my 



146 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

grave before I will budge a jot, for I owe obedience of my 
conscience to no mortal man." 

The student's actual report of this passage to the 
class might run as follows: — 

On the death of his father in 1670, William Penn inherited 
an ample fortune. He gave his time to the preaching of 
Quaker doctrines. His eloquence in preaching and his social 
position probably did much to give the Quakers a standing of 
respectability, somewhat on a par with Presbyterians and 
Puritans. 

As he traveled about preaching, he was often thrown into 
prison, once for six months in filthy Newgate with common 
criminals. 

In his defense before the magistrates he won the admira- 
tion of the judges by his shrewdness, intelligence, and ability 
to defend his cause. One Judge Robinson openly applauded 
him and wondered that he consorted with such simple peo- 
ple. When one of the judges gave him a sneering insult, he 
boldly replied, "I trample your slander into the dirt beneath 
my feet." He was also very steadfast. When the Bishop of 
London sent word to him that he must recant or die in prison, 
he sent back the reply that he would make his prison a grave 
rather than submit his conscience to the dictation of any 
man. 

This statement is not quite half so long as the orig- 
inal passage. Another student, reporting on the same 
passage, would give the gist of the matter in a still 
more condensed form occupying perhaps a quarter of 
the original space. What a pupil ought to remember 
permanently from such a passage might be expressed 
thus : — 

William Penn, though rich and aristocratic, preached the 
Quaker doctrines, suffered for them in prison, defended him- 
self boldly and eloquently before the courts, and refused 
absolutely to submit his conscience to any man's rule. 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 147 

Many topics studied in history, geography, litera- 
ture, and science admit of such a detailed introductory 
treatment, concrete and descriptive; while the final 
summary will give a condensed statement of essentials 
which should be mastered and thoroughly fixed. This 
kind of study imposes a constant thoughtful discrim- 
ination and a habit of judging facts in their relation to 
fundamental ideas. 

Illustrations of things to be thoroughly understood and 
mastered 

1. Centrally important ideas and characters in his- 
tory. 

Facts must be grouped and combined in such a way 
as to bring out the important ideas and persons; 
e.g., the idea of self-government as developed by 
the early colonies in New England; the characters 
of John Winthrop and Roger Williams. 

2. Main processes and principles in nature-study and 
science; e.g., the circulation of moisture by evapo- 
ration, winds, rains, etc.; the life history of trees, 
plants, insects, etc. 

3. The complete mastery of necessary formal ele- 
ments; as, the phonetic elements in reading and 
spelling and quickness in their use; the arith- 
metical tables and facts, simple notation in music. 

4. Memorize important select passages in poetry and 
prose, especially those which express fundamental 
ideas or sentiments or embody artistic conceptions. 

5. The thorough understanding and use of processes 



148 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

in arithmetic and the underlying continuity in 
these processes. 

6. The sequence of important topics in any large unit 
of study, in geography, history, and science; e.g., 
the lumber industry, the growth of territory in the 
United States. 

7. A few main classes and distinctions in grammar, 
and the ability to analyze any sentence into its 
main elements. 

8. Complete memorizing of vocabularies, phrases, 
and modes of sentence construction in a foreign 
language. 

9. The conclusions and summaries that result from 
thoughtful comparisons; as in comparing great 
rivers, cities, states, industries, nations, continents, 
etc. 

10. The dates of a few centrally important events in 
history; as, 1492, 1607, 1620, 1787, 1861, in Amer- 
ican history. But perhaps more essential are the 
few great epochs and periods in American and 
world history, expressed graphically by diagrams. 

11. The working-out of complete units of construction 
in the manual arts, including design, construction, 
and use. 

12. The substantial mastery in essentials of complete 
stories, poems, and even larger masterpieces in 
literature: e.g., The King of the Golden River, The 
Pied Piper, Evangeline. 

13. The more complete mastery of the main elements 
and principles of all studies, as revealed by the 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 149 

power to make new applications to various studies 
and to life conditions outside of the school. 
14. The constant emphasis of moral ideas and disposi- 
tions and habits of behavior, showing respect, 
courtesy, helpfulness, honesty, courage, etc. 

Illustrations of knowledge which is of secondary or 
transient value 

1. In map study and drawing, the smaller bends of 
coast lines and rivers, likewise the less important 
towns, mountains, and political divisions. For 
example, in studying the North German Empire in 
Europe, the names of the twenty-five States of 
which it is composed, are not required. It is of 
doubtful value to learn the names and location 
of all the forty-eight capitals of the American 
States. 

2. The number of men killed or made prisoners in 
battles. In the Civil War even the names of many 
subordinate battles would better be omitted, as 
is now customary. 

3. Numerous dates and facts in history may be used 
temporarily or omitted, such, for example, as the 
smaller details in the early history of the thirteen 
American colonies; e.g., the details of Indian 
massacres, etc. 

4. Much of the statistical data in geography; as, for 
example, the quantity of products of each of the 
States and the rank of each State as to production. 
Such statistical data arranged in an appendix can 



150 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

be frequently used in making comparisons among 
States, cities, rivers, productions for the whole 
country, and in foreign lands. 

5. Names and order of English, French, German, and 
Roman sovereigns. Instead of this an interesting 
biographical acquaintance with a few important 
characters, such as Elizabeth, Cromwell, Victoria, 
Peter the Great, Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, 
Napoleon, Charlemagne, and Csesar, is desirable. 

6. In general omit from the final drills all facts in 
geography and history which are not associated 
directly with important ideas or which do not help 
to clear up such ideas. Many names which we have 
often learned and located in geography have no 
special significance, as Cape Mendocino, Lake 
Baikal, Desert of Gobi, Limpopo River, Tiflis, 
Orizaba, Nova Zembla, etc. 

7. Many of the secondary distinctions and classifica- 
tions in grammar; as the kinds of conjunctive 
adverbs, prepositional phrases. 

8. The spelling of numerous unusual words. Thus 
save time for drill upon common everyday words. 

9. In studying literature, the mere names of authors, 
books, and biographical data that carry no mean- 
ing and are an encumbrance to the mind and some- 
thing of a deception. 

10. In arithmetic an elimination has already been 
made of less important tables in compound num- 
bers, and of many advanced but unsuitable 
topics. 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 151 

II. PERFECTION AND CRUDENESS IN WORK 

Closely allied to this doctrine of thoroughness in 
knowing is the notion of precision, and accuracy, and 
even perfection in doing. Its opposite is crudeness and 
careless workmanship running off into slovenliness. 

In writing, drawing, and speaking, skillful motor 
habits are to be acquired and a superior standard of 
accomplishment set up. In constructive exercises and 
bookbinding, in domestic science laboratories, in shop- 
work and gardening, motor skill is demanded and 
steadily cultivated. Children gain quickness and mus- 
cular control in physical and gymnasial exercises and 
in field sports. During recent years the physical or 
motor activities have developed in scope and import- 
ance until about one half of the time of the school is 
now employed in motor effort of one kind or another. 
It is of much importance, therefore, to determine the 
standards of excellence upon which this kind of work 
is to be measured. 

It is the peculiar business of the school to set up good 
standards and to work definitely and steadily for their 
realization. Many skillful teachers set up from the 
very start the idea of perfection in doing things as their 
standard. In arithmetic, for instance, a high degree of 
speed and accuracy, as near perfection as possible, is 
the aim. In spelling, writing, map-drawing, and in 
tool-work in the shop, a standard close to perfection is 
kept in view. To secure these standards severe and 
long-continued drills are necessary, and oftentimes the 



152 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

work becomes irksome and even exasperating to the 
children. 

Over against this demand for a high grade of exact- 
ness and precision we may set up the opposite doctrine 
of the necessary crudeness and imperfection of most 
activities which children are required to perform. No 
teacher in his senses will set up perfect formal accuracy 
in the writing of first and second grade children as a 
required standard. It is only very slowly and gradually 
that they acquire a reasonably accurate and legible 
form in writing: the same also with drawing and con- 
struction. All forms of skill and precision are acquired 
slowly and by degrees. Children develop through crude 
and imperfect effort, even through error, toward accu- 
racy and perfection. Their muscles and physical con- 
trol are at first undeveloped. Any teacher who de- 
mands perfect form in writing, and close accuracy in 
drawing, or exact skill in the use of tools, is forcing an 
unnatural and premature accomplishment upon chil- 
dren. This extreme demand for superior skill imposes 
upon children an unreasonable burden of anxiety and 
painful effort which brings on excessive nervous strain. 
It is too high a price for excellence. I have seen chil- 
dren in third and fourth grades, under high pressure, 
attain an accuracy in formal written work that was 
surprising, — the admiration of parents and even of 
teachers. But it was equally painful and harmful in its 
results. In wood- working problems, insistence upon 
extreme accuracy and skill in using tools and in fitting 
joints will quickly discourage boys from that kind of 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 153 

work. Adults and even teachers often make the mis- 
take of setting up adult standards for children. They 
seem to think that children, with one leap, can reach 
the point which the adult has attained after years of 
special training. It would save us from some blunder- 
ing to remember that all skill is based on habit and 
habits are built up slowly through long-continued 
effort. Especially is this true of complicated habits 
like those of writing, speaking, reading, of games like 
ball-playing, of piano-playing, and of social behavior. 

The standard of excellence that should be set up for 
children's motor accomplishments in school is a con- 
stantly changing and developing one. There should be 
a steady growth toward precision and accuracy through 
the years. But the adoption of very high standards of 
excellence in early years is a not uncommon mistake, 
and is a sign that the schoolmaster has not balanced up 
properly the account between ideal precision on one 
side and the necessary crudity of children's efforts on 
the other side. 

While the strong, ambitious teacher is often inclined 
to require an excellence which is too severe, when the 
age and powers of the children are considered, the feeble, 
inefficient teacher is not sufficiently definite and posi- 
tive in enforcing higher standards upon children. Some 
children of the same age are capable of much higher 
excellence than others, and the demands will vary with 
the persons. The teacher, therefore, must work on a 
sliding scale and constantly adjust his requirements to 
the age and individual ability of the pupils, while ever 



154 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

reconciling the two opposed tendencies of too great 
stringency on the one side, and too much looseness and 
carelessness on the other. What children can do with 
relative freedom and ease, or, stated negatively, with- 
out overstrain and nervous anxiety, is safe. It doubt- 
less seems desirable to many teachers to have a fixed 
standard, so that they may know just what is required 
and then hew to the line, but the demand is practically 
impossible and unjust. Standards of excellence in for- 
mal dexterities are necessarily relative and progressive. 
The teacher is very certainly and distinctively an 
adjuster. In every class and with every child, so far as 
possible, there should be a fair and reasonable consid- 
eration of all the varied and conflicting elements in the 
problem. In this rational, prudent, and sympathetic 
measuring up and balancing of forces, the teacher finds 
his most difficult problem and his chief duty. 

Up to the age of about sixteen years children should 
have a wide variety of experiences of the motor type, 
games, tree-climbing, and field sports, gymnastic 
drills, dancing, boating, swimming, boxing, tennis, ball- 
games, jumping, running, turning, quoits, horseback 
riding, etc. In none of these things is a very high degree 
of skill necessary. In general, only a limited skill is 
desirable. Anything that looks toward excessive skill 
and professionalism is, of course, excluded. This wide 
range of motor experiences gives health and flexibility 
to all the bodily organs and prepares them for later 
prompt and varied adjustment to life conditions. A 
medium degree of development in all these forms of 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 155 

motor skill is desirable and is suited both to the present 
physical powers of children and to their future adult 
requirements. The teacher should, indeed, set up 
strong standards of excellence for all the motor activi- 
ties of young people, standards, too, that call for real 
effort; but they should strike a medium line of skill and 
efficiency adapted to the age and power of children. 
To determine this satisfactory standard and make it 
steadily progressive through the grades calls for a ripe, 
well-balanced judgment in the instructor. 

The reasonableness of this theory of gradually im- 
proving standards may be demonstrated in many ways. 
A twelve-year-old boy is not expected to show the skill 
in baseball-playing that is common among youths of 
eighteen. In the commercial school a young man of 
nineteen may easily develop a perfection in penman- 
ship that cannot be expected in the seventh or eighth 
grade. 

Moral education, also, as expressed in conduct, 
shows the same principles at work. In the growth of 
good manners and social behavior in childhood, to set 
up adult standards of action and dress would be fool- 
ish. To make premature gentlemen and ladies out of 
boys and girls is to set a premium on priggishness and 
conceit. Children grow into good manners very gradu- 
ally. It is only crabbed bachelors and those who have 
little experience and sympathy with children who ex- 
pect them to behave in the supposed perfect style of 
adults. Conduct is defined as the highest of the fine 
arts. It is so, perhaps, because social behavior is so 



156 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

complicated. It requires a combination of mental and 
motor habits in an intricate variety of adjustments. 
Even adolescents, therefore, are notably deficient in 
what we call matured good manners. The moral dis- 
positions which lie at the basis of suitable conduct are 
only slowly and deliberately matured. They involve all 
the elements of a rich, well-organized mental life com- 
bined with complex motor habits, and are the out- 
growth of inner struggles and conquests. All these 
developing activities and tendencies must be combined 
in proper proportions and slowly settled into habits, 
and those habits in turn placed in the service of a free 
and versatile personality or will. 

The careful determination of the standard of motor 
skill that may be reasonably set up for children is im- 
portant again because it bears directly upon the prob- 
lem of vocational training which is now in the fore- 
front of public discussion, and is demanding a definite 
settlement. For a long time business men have criti- 
cized the schools sharply because children, on leaving 
the school, are not trained in those particular forms 
of skill which business requires; for example, in clerk- 
ships and in reckoning as required by banks and busi- 
ness houses. Even in the skillful use of tools in some 
kinds of shop-work this practical expertness has been 
demanded of school children. There is some show of 
justice in this demand in letter-writing and figuring, 
which most resemble school-work. But experts in most 
trades and special callings are too wise to make such 
demands from school children. The blacksmith, the 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 157 

shoemaker, the tailor, and the jeweler know better 
than to make such special requirements. When a boy 
just out of school enters one of these trade or business 
lines he has much special knowledge yet to acquire. 
The main question is, How well prepared is he to learn 
a special trade with quickness and accuracy? What 
preparatory mental and motor experience and skill has 
he that will enable him promptly to master a special 
trade or calling? 

The present strongly voiced public demand for vo- 
cational training — that is, for schools that will train 
efficiently for special callings — is an acknowledg- 
ment, on the one side, that the common schools can- 
not directly prepare children for special trades and 
occupations, and on the other side, that a special 
training of considerable length and variety in special 
schools is required in nearly every important trade or 
business in order to fit apprentices with the skill and 
efficiency necessary in these different occupations. 
The child needs a certain minimum of general educa- 
tion before beginning any special trade, and the com- 
mon school is designed to give this broad foundation 
of necessary general knowledge. With older children 
in grammar schools occasional efforts are made with 
the beginnings of vocational work. Generally speak- 
ing it may be regarded as a mistake for a child below 
fourteen and even below sixteen to acquire any high 
degree of expertness in a special calling. Such special- 
ization means, in most cases, the stopping of general 
education. But a child's opportunities for general 



158 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

culture should not suffer eclipse by too early special- 
ization. 

The other chief reason, already suggested, why we 
cannot work out any complete plan for vocational 
education in the elementary school, below the high 
school, is that the high degree of skill required in an 
adult trade is not attainable by children. This kind of 
perfected skill in an art or trade is usually acquired by 
young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty, 
when the physical as well as the mental powers are 
coming to their full development. If this is generally 
true, trade perfection cannot be set up as a standard 
in the eighth grade, much less in the grades below. 
In business and the practical life of the industries 
among leading nations, the usual time set for begin- 
ning a trade or skilled art is the age of sixteen. All 
vocational training will be compelled to adjust itself 
to this important fact in human nature. There are 
doubtless many kinds of preliminary training in the 
manual arts, in physical training, games, etc., which 
lead up to and pave the way to more efficient voca- 
tional training later on. But children in the grades 
should not be prematurely hurried into skilled arts 
and trades before they are physically and mentally 
mature enough to take on the required skill. 

Conclusions 

1. The standard of excellence to be put forward for 
testing motor activities in the school is constantly 
changing and adjustable, and is necessarily de- 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 159 

pendent upon the ability and stage of growth of the 
children. 

2. There is danger on the one side of too low and care- 
less standards and on the other of too difficult and 
unattainable standards of perfection for children. 

3. Adult standards of motor skill in the trades and 
occupations are not appropriate to children in the 
grades, but belong to the vocational schools and 
to later adult life. Teachers, parents, and adults 
generally are naturally inclined to impose matured 
standards prematurely upon children. 

A comparison of the two lines of thought in this chapter 

(1) Over-thoroughness versus superficiality in learn- 
ing, and (2) perfection in doing versus imperfect work, 
show the same governing principle which demands a 
moderate degree of excellence, well balanced between 
too severe and too careless requirements, and a pro- 
gressively improving standard of thoroughness and 
motor skill suited to the increasing powers of children. 

Examples of crudeness and of gradually developing 
skill in children 

1. In their games children develop their skill day by 
day under the impulse of rivalry and of the game or 
play spirit. It is well advised that children of the 
same age and physical powers play together. They 
have reached about the same stage of muscular con- 
trol and of skill. Gradually they develop strength 
and dexterity by mutual interaction. 



160 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

2. A child working with others in the garden handling 
tools and plants, little by little takes on the move- 
ments and habits that lead to efficiency. 

3. Why are some mothers unwilling to permit their 
daughters to help with the cooking, or sewing, and 
with other phases of housekeeping? Often it is 
because the children are awkward and unskillful. 
They make a muss, they waste materials, and the 
mothers are not willing to put up with their crude 
and faulty efforts. 

4. A farmer's boy, in learning to milk, to build sheds 
and barns, to use and repair farm machines, to load 
hay on a wagon or build a stack, to handle calves 
and horses, acquires the art, slowly, of doing these 
things with some degree of efficiency. But the 
highest degree of expertness in conducting a farm 
is usually only gained later when he takes up agri- 
cultural study in a scientific way at a professional 
school. 

Examples of the danger of setting up too high standards 
for motor excellence 

1. In executing manual constructions, boys in the 
seventh and eighth grades are often discouraged by 
a teacher who requires perfection of workmanship 
and first-class finish. Their whole interest is lost 
and a certain repulsion for such work is generated. 

2. In the musical training of young people excessive 
drills in the perfection of musical technique fre- 
quently tire and disgust children who might de- 



STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE 161 

velop more gradually to a high appreciation and 
skill. 

3. Young children, if left to themselves to draw and 
sketch spontaneously, often develop to considerable 
power of expression with the pencil, but when dic- 
tated to by their elders, who are aiming at too much 
care and skill in execution, they lose interest and 
cease to draw. 

4. In writing exercises, too exacting standards as to 
form produce cramped movements and check free- 
dom, while a free arm movement is necessary to the 
formation of good, easy writing. 

5. When parents dictate to children excessively high 
standards of moral behavior, they are trying to 
develop the virtues prematurely and are in great 
danger of producing hypocrisy, priggishness, and 
a merely formal subservience. A more gradual and 
rational development of manners with proper re- 
gard to a child's own feelings and impulses is a 
much safer course, leading to sincerity, frankness, 
and true courtesy. 

6. Where such high standards are successfully worked 
out with children, the results may be unfortunate 
because of checking a child's general educational 
advance, as when music or drawing are prema- 
turely raised to a high degree of skill. Or, the 
unusual skill of a boy in baseball and other sports 
may draw him away from his studies and give him 
a strong tendency to professional athletics. 



CHAPTER VII 

TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 
I. THE CONCRETE AND THE ABSTRACT 

The terms "concrete" and "abstract" stand in 
distinct contrast as a pair of opposites. The concrete 
is expressed in a material object; the abstract is a 
purely mental product and is immaterial. Other 
terms are also used to designate this same contrast; 
as, "particular notion" and "general notion," "per- 
cept" and "concept." 

In psychology, the chapters dealing with the per- 
cept and the concept have long been regarded as of 
prime importance because they have been supposed 
to explain the universal thought process in learning. 
The process by which percepts are developed into 
concepts gives a combined inductive-deductive method 
which is taken as the general law for teachers. There 
has been much dispute as to how the concept is 
formed and as to the parts played by induction and 
deduction. But, broadly speaking, the movement is 
from the concrete to the abstract. In any case there 
is a very close connection and interdependence be- 
tween percept and concept. Psychology is very ex- 
plicit in saying that nothing gets into the mind except 
through the senses (including sensations coming from 
kinesthetic reactions). The raw materials of knowl- 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 163 

edge, known as "sense-percepts," are developed into 
concepts. All the later structure and organization of 
knowledge is built upon this foundation of percepts 
and concepts. The more closely we try, by a psycho- 
logical analysis, to trace the process by which percepts 
grow into concepts, the more intimate appears their 
relation. In fact, we cannot precisely draw the line 
between them, so closely are they intertwined. And 
yet most teachers have a strong tendency to sepa- 
rate, widely, thinking in the concrete from thinking 
in the abstract. It is this tendency to produce an an- 
tagonism between things, which in their very nature 
should be inseparable and mutually dependent, that 
most concerns us as teachers. 

Some people attach their thinking strongly and pre- 
dominantly to objects or to sense-images based on 
objects. In other words, they are very concrete and 
realistic in their thinking. Observation and experi- 
ence in nature-study and in industrial arts give such 
sensory training. Other persons are more reflective, 
and think more abstractly and in general terms. 
Grammar and algebra, for example, are generalizing 
or abstract studies. 

On the one side, children and poets and artists deal 
in pictures, images, colors, impersonations. Primary 
teachers easily develop into a concrete, realistic, sense- 
imaginative way of thinking which is appropriate to 
the teaching of children. On the other side, mathe- 
maticians, grammarians, and philosophers are sup- 
posed to be abstract in their modes of thought. 



164 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

Teachers, also, in the upper grades and higher schools 
are too much inclined to be abstract and conceptual. 
Unfortunately, most of our textbooks train children 
in abstract phraseology. The word "text," itself, as 
in a sermon, suggests a general proverb or rule of ac- 
tion. Our textbooks are made up largely of these texts. 
They are condensed or generalized statements, mostly 
stripped of concrete associations. When children come 
upon these for the first time, they have not the concrete 
experience with which to interpret them, and, unless 
the teacher is an artist in the way of rich concrete illus- 
tration, they are troubled and muddled. Teaching is 
often too abstract. Why should teachers and text- 
book makers put the cart before the horse in this way? 
Why not begin by working up through the concrete 
and bring out the text or abstraction at the end as a 
natural outcome? From some perverse cause, teachers, 
textbooks, and methods of teaching, in all countries 
and in all times, begin very often with the abstract, 
and only drift back at times into the concrete. 

In the history of education in Europe and America, 
the reform movement for centuries has been a vigorous 
and constant struggle to escape from abstract and 
formal studies. In order to get children over into 
realism the great reform movements, one after another, 
have introduced pictures, objects, models, outdoor 
nature-study, laboratory experiment, shop-work in 
the manual arts, the school garden and agriculture, 
physical exercises and games. This movement toward 
objects, toward realism in many ways, has accumu- 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 165 

lated a great energy in our day. Its purpose is to re- 
store the proper equilibrium between the concrete and 
the abstract in our thinking processes. The theories 
of the psychologists have pointed unmistakably in 
the same direction, i.e., to a greater emphasis of the 
objective and experimental in the earlier stages of 
every subject. In spite of these facts, the majority of 
teachers and textbooks are still held firmly to abstract 
modes of teaching. 

This insistent and overwhelming demand for more 
concrete and realistic teaching is in no respect an 
objection or criticism against abstract knowledge. 
All of our thinking must rise, sooner or later, to the 
full abstract or conceptual form. Otherwise, what we 
learn is meaningless and worthless. We must grow 
into a strong grasp of general notions in all subjects, 
else our so-called knowledge is shallow and unfruitful. 

The teacher, therefore, should carry every important 
topic through a rich concrete line of experience. When 
thought has generalized itself out of the concrete, it 
has a sound basis. Aristotle discovered this safe basis 
of knowledge many centuries ago. Before forming 
conclusions on government, he studied carefully in 
detail the constitutions of scores of Greek and Oriental 
States as a basis for his book on Politics. The careless 
and indolent thinker likes to escape from this long 
labor of collecting and comparing data. It is so much 
easier to jump at sweeping generalizations. With 
children, especially, we are obliged to pile up concrete 
illustrations, first because their minds naturally cling 



166 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

to the material object, and second, because they can 
make no progress without it. Philosophers and adults, 
who have already accumulated a rich store of lively 
experiences, already have these at command for use. 
But children are helpless before a textbook or teacher 
who deals in the abstract. This happens either for 
lack of concrete experiences, or because they are un- 
able to bring their experience into relation to the new 
subject. 

Strange to say, the concrete phases of study can 
easily be overdone. Examples of this are numerous. 
Children brought up in country homes, rich in the 
scenery of nature and farm life, show little interested 
attention to their concrete surroundings. It was once 
supposed that if children were only surrounded by 
active nature forces and objects, they would easily 
respond. They need a teacher to introduce them to 
Dame Nature. Nature-study in field and laboratory 
has not produced the results that were anticipated a 
few years ago. 

In teaching arithmetic, after a preliminary concrete 
illustration of a topic, it is necessary to break away 
from the concrete and master number facts and pro- 
cesses by repeated drills for swift and accurate use. 
Children should not be allowed to dawdle among the 
concrete facts, counting on their fingers, when the 
time has come for the memory to fix the results and 
deal with a process as a rule of action. In other words, 
when the concrete phase of a topic has been once ade- 
quately presented, we must at once swing over into 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 167 

a new line of effort, namely, the mastery of processes 
and principles in their general or abstract form. Ap- 
plication again to the concrete follows this and com- 
pletes the circle of practical action. 

Generalization is a strong thought process. It is 
simply a way of allowing ideas to grow and take on 
full meaning. It is a condensation of facts and their 
meaning into a process. Ideas spring out of the study 
of the concrete and develop through a study of rela- 
tions and by comparisons. No amount of mere con- 
crete observation and description can take the place 
of this generalizing process of thought. Generaliza- 
tions are a precipitate from a thoughtful dealing with 
facts. 

The more we study into these so-called concrete 
and abstract modes of thinking, the more closely do 
we find them linked together. The tendency to sepa- 
rate them widely, or to give the chief emphasis to one 
or to the other, is a sure sign of one-sidedness and 
error, especially in the teacher. The lack of balance 
between these two mutually essential elements has 
been the cause of untold error and countless futile 
efforts in trying to teach. The classroom teacher must 
become expert in the rapid movement back and forth 
between these two modes of thought. It is well enough 
for the teacher, in his effort to understand the situa- 
tion as to the relation between abstract and concrete 
thinking, to separate them by psychological analysis, 
and then to remember that his analysis is artificial. 
In life itself and in the process of learning the two are 



168 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

combined. The teacher should reflect upon and realize 
in full measure the necessity for both these elements 
and for an incessant interlocking of their forces. 

Another difficulty that we must keep clearly in 
mind is that, as children grow older and more experi- 
enced in thinking, the emphasis can be transferred 
gradually to more abstract modes of thought. The 
teacher's skilled and experienced judgment will be 
constantly called into play to determine, first, the 
kind of concrete illustration needed by a class in any 
subject of study, and, second, their capacity for 
healthy abstract thought. 

The difference between a general or abstract treat- 
ment of topics, such as is common in textbooks, and 
a concrete treatment may be illustrated by the fol- 
lowing quotations. 

One of the recent grammar-school textbooks in his- 
tory speaks of the Tories in the Revolutionary period, 
thus: — 

The Tories 

Washington found New York and New Jersey full of To- 
ries — men who did not want independence and who took 
sides with the king. In every State there were some men of 
this class. The ships that carried Howe away from Boston 
had on board nine hundred Tories from Massachusetts. Alto- 
gether about one fifth of the people of the States belonged 
to the Tory class. In the Middle States, however, the class 
was larger than it was in any other section, and the Tories 
around New York did what they could to annoy Washington 
and bring disaster upon the American cause. 

The following story illustrates the more lively con- 
crete mode of presenting the situation: — 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 169 

Robert Sallette l 

In Liberty County, Georgia, there lived, during the Revo- 
lution, a young patriot by the name of Robert Sallette. He 
was noted for his exploits in opposition to the Tories. His 
name suggests that he may have been one of the French 
Aeadians who had been expelled from their home by the 
English. At any rate, he bore no love to the English, and 
they had good cause to fear him. 

It is not known with certainty to what division or company 
of the American army he belonged. He appears to have been 
a sort of roving character, doing things in his own way, and 
engaged from time to time in the most reckless adventures. 
His very name was such a terror to the Tories that they made 
plans to get him out of the way. One of the Tories, a man of 
considerable wealth, offered a reward large enough to tempt 
some one to assassinate the daring partisan. No ordinary 
man would dare to attack Robert Sallette in the open. 
I When Sallette heard of this reward which was placed on 
his head, as if he were a criminal or a wild beast, he thought 
he would try to even up scores with the rich Tory. He dis- 
guised himself as a farmer and provided himself with a pump- 
kin, which he placed in a bag. With the bag swinging across 
his shoulder he crossed over the enemy's lines and made his 
way to the house of the Tory. The very boldness with which 
he walked into danger took away suspicion. 

Walking up to the door he gave the knocker a sharp rap 
and was invited into the comfortable sitting-room of the Tory 
gentleman. He deposited the bag on the floor beside him, the 
pumpkin striking the floor with a thump. 

" I have brought you the head of Robert Sallette," said he; 
"I hear that you have offered a reward of one hundred guin- 
eas for it." 

"Where is it?" asked the Tory. 

"I have it with me," replied Sallette shaking the loose 
end of the bag. "Count me out the money and take the 
head." 

The Tory, neither doubting nor suspecting, counted out 
the money and placed it on the table. "Now, show me the 

1 Adapted from Stories of Georgia, by Joel Chandler Harris. 



170 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

head," said he. Sallette removed his hat, tapped himself on 
the forehead, and said, "Here is the head of Robert Sallette." 
The Tory was so surprised and frightened that he jumped 
from his seat and sprang out of the room, without waiting to 
get better acquainted with Sallette. The latter turned to the 
table, pocketed the money, and then quickly departed. He 
made his way in safety back to his friends. 

Three or four such stories illustrative of the con- 
flicts between Whigs and Tories in the South, as in 
Georgia, in the Middle Colonies, and in New England, 
would give children a vivid sense of the bitter and cruel 
struggle between the two parties. This could then be 
followed by the more general and comprehensive 
statement given above. The general statement given 
first without illustration is not very intelligible to 
children and is of no particular interest to them. The 
topic is an important one; for the bitterness and long 
duration of the war were largely produced by the 
great number and influence of the Tories or Loyalists. 

The solution of this problem of properly combining 
the so-called abstract and concrete thought materials 
in instruction is, in our judgment, vital and funda- 
mental. It controls the selection and mode of treat- 
ment of subject-matter in every important unit of 
study. Whether we are dealing with a process in 
arithmetic, an idea like representative government in 
history, a geographical topic like the Erie Canal, or 
the life history of a tree or animal in science, the main 
question to be asked may be thus stated, — What 
facts, illustrations, and other concrete data must be 
brought together, and how should they be organized 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 171 

so as to bring out the general notion or concept at 
the basis of the topic? 

In approaching a new and important topic in any 
study this problem of choosing and grouping the il- 
lustrative facts and data so as to reveal the general 
truth or concept meets us squarely at the doorway 
and must be dealt with. During the past two years, 
with a select body of vigorous and earnest teachers 
and with this purpose clearly in mind, we have made 
the attack upon a considerable number of large topics 
in several school studies, our purpose being to give to 
each large topic an adequate treatment, i.e., a proper 
combination of concrete and abstract. In every case, 
without exception, we have been astonished at the 
magnitude and difficulty of the undertaking. We have 
tried such topics, for example, as the Erie Canal, the 
Congo River, the Himalaya Mountains, the White 
Mountains, Irrigation in the West, the Columbia 
River, the Desert of Sahara, Steamboat Navigation 
on the Mississippi River, the Purchase of Louisiana 
and Westward Expansion, the Town Meeting and 
Self- Government in the Massachusetts Colony, Bur- 
goyne's Campaign, etc. In each case the difficulty 
consists in determining what and how many concrete 
data are needed to organize it so as fully to clarify a 
definite concept or general notion. In each case this 
has proved to be a strong problem demanding first- 
class ability in organization. 

Our recent writers on education have done little to 
help us upon this vital and very difficult point. They 



172 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

have given us no end of general psychological advice 
about the concrete and the abstract, about principles 
of classroom instruction, but they never apply these 
principles themselves to a particular topic. This has 
not appealed to them as a real problem for the thinker. 
It seems as if they had come to the brink of a chasm 
and then retreated without descending into its depths. 
It reminds one of the old story of the mice proposing 
to bell the cat. 

Our experiments with this problem seem to result 
in two surprises, pointing out the main difficulties. 
First, it requires a much larger collection of excellent 
concrete or illustrative material to give the proper 
setting and illumination for an important concept 
than we had supposed; secondly, the organization of 
these concrete data so as to give a strong sequence in 
the progressive thought development proved difficult 
beyond all expectation. 

Writers on the general theory of education and on 
principles of class instruction have commonly assumed 
that it is first necessary to state clearly the principles 
that govern in school instruction and then leave it to 
class teachers to apply these principles to any partic- 
ular subject-matter. The result seems to be that the 
general theorist never gets into his real problem, where 
the main difficulty lies. The careful selection of first- 
class material in the studies and the adequate organi- 
zation of this material around important thought 
centers so as to get all the needed facts and data into 
shape before the actual work of teaching begins is a 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 173 

vital problem which our pure theorists have not even 
touched. It is by the practical solution of these def- 
inite units of study worked out in subject-matter, and 
by this alone, that we can determine the proper com- 
bination of the concrete and abstract in class instruc- 
tion. On the other hand, classroom teachers have not 
been able to solve this problem for several reasons: 

(1) they are lacking in a knowledge of sound theory; 

(2) they are lacking in the detailed knowledge neces- 
sary for a rich and fruitful concrete treatment of big 
topics; (3) the textbooks and prevailing modes of 
instruction mislead them as to the amount of concrete 
data necessary to the adequate treatment of a topic; 
(4) they are not trained in this difficult art of organi- 
zation. The result is that one of the most vital and 
difficult practical problems at the very basis of our 
actual school work has been neglected, or to say the 
least, very inadequately worked out. 

The development of our whole course of study is 
halted at this point for the present, waiting for some 
one to step in, endowed with a double portion of com- 
bined theoretical and practical sense, who will attack 
this difficult problem in the schoolroom and in the 
very subject-matter of school studies. A complete, 
rich, and detailed or concrete knowledge of the im- 
portant topics in school studies will be an indispensable 
equipment. In this serious matter our theories have 
fallen short, and they will continue to fall short. 
Somebody must roll up his sleeves and come into close 
quarters with the full subject-matter of studies in the 



174 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

classroom with children, i.e., with all the facts and 
realities before him. In this way an intelligent and 
resourceful teacher and thinker may find out what the 
trouble is with our present course of study. He may 
also find the remedy. In this way we may strike at 
the center of one of the most difficult and important 
problems in actual instruction, i.e., the proper com- 
bination between the concrete, illustrative facts, and 
the central ideas or concepts around which these facts 
must be organized. 

Illustrations of too abstract modes of teaching 

1. There is a marked contrast between the usual con- 
densed textbooks in history and geography, and the 
supplementary readers in the same subjects. The 
latter are filled up with interesting, picturesque de- 
tails and illustrations in a lively style, often sea- 
soned with humor and personal traits, curious social 
customs, and things which are even outlandish and 
remarkable. The great demand for such lively sup- 
plementary material is a direct proof that the text- 
books are dull and abstract and need a reinforce- 
ment of the concrete. 

2. We are all familiar with the fact that dry sermoniz- 
ing on abstract theological subjects causes the 
church pews to remain empty. Successful clergy- 
men, on the contrary, abandon purely doctrinal ser- 
mons and illustrate great scriptural truths freely 
from modern life, from good and evil as seen in busi- 
ness, on the streets of cities, in travel, and in home 
and school. 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 175 

3. We now find it necessary to collect physical maps, 
pictures, stereographs, lantern slides, typical prod- 
ucts of foreign lands, museum collections, science 
materials, and a great variety of illustrative con- 
crete material for the purpose of reinforcing the too 
abstract textbook matter. In the same way drama- 
tization is designed to strengthen studies in literature. 

4. We often notice a strong tendency in adults to 
think in abstractions and to discourse about things 
from the standpoint of their matured experience. 
Many preachers cannot talk successfully to children 
for this reason. Even the appropriate language 
fails them for expressing their thought to children. 

5. Pedagogical writers are in most cases needlessly 
abstract, almost as if they were determined to give 
teachers a standing and unmistakable illustration of 
wrong modes of teaching; e.g., Rosenkranz, Froe- 
bel, and Herbart among the Germans. Some of our 
leading American writers are likewise abstract in 
style. In many cases these writers are so abstract in 
their thought processes as to require an interpreter. 
Educational writers ought not to make this mistake, 
because they thus strengthen and perpetuate some 
of the common mistakes and blunders of teachers. 

Examples of excessive emphasis upon the concrete 

1. In primary reading bright-colored pictures are 
sometimes used so profusely as to draw children's 
attention away from the essentials of reading, word- 
study, phonic drills, etc. 



176 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

2. In primary number work children are sometimes 
kept too long working with blocks, splints, and 
counting-material. They should soon lay these 
objects aside and think and memorize number facts 
and relations. 

3. Public lecturers sometimes overload their addresses 
with anecdotes and humorous episodes to the neg- 
lect of more serious thought. 

4. Boys and girls frequently become absorbed in the 
reading of interesting and lively story-books, such 
as the Henty books, the Alger books, and others of 
like character, to the neglect of their more serious 
studies and of other books requiring vigorous think- 
ing. Even adults sometimes dissipate their thought 
energy too much by reading in a hasty and careless 
way for mere entertainment. 

5. Our modern picture shows give us a strong illustra- 
tion of the excessive use of the concrete in spectacu- 
lar displays, rapid movement, exciting dramatic 
action, and often on trivial subjects. The picture 
show, properly organized to illustrate and bring out 
the sense of important topics in geography, history, 
and social life, is very valuable. 

Examples of a proper balance between concrete and 
abstract modes of thought 

1. A poem like the Village Blacksmith of Longfellow, 
Bryant's Waterfowl, Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal, 
Browning's Pied Piper of Hamelin. The universal 
popularity of such selections as adapted to school 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 177 

purposes is proof of the right combination of these 
elements. Great writers in their best books are apt 
to hit this combination. 

2. In the Book of Proverbs the most striking and inter- 
esting passage is the description of a virtuous wo- 
man in the last chapter It is in fact a remarkable 
poetical picture, beautiful in its simplicity and con- 
creteness, one of the distinctive products of great 
world literature. The Proverbs, themselves, though 
keenly significant to adults, are less concrete and 
effective. The same judgment may be passed upon 
the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, which contains 
the remarkable poetical imagery descriptive of 
old age. 

3. In the teachings of Jesus, including the parables, the 
conversations and the Sermon on the Mount, we 
find a combination of the simplest concrete illus- 
trations and profound truths such as can scarcely be 
discovered elsewhere in literature. 

4. The use of biographical stories of American history 
in intermediate and grammar grades is a superior 
means of combining the concrete of individual 
experience with the great representative ideas. In 
the personal experiences and character of William 
Penn, we find the embodiment of the commanding 
ideas of liberty of conscience and religious toleration; 
John Winthrop is a type of intelligent Puritanism; 
Samuel Adams is the impersonation of the spirit of 
'76; Webster was the representative of the great 
idea of unity among the States. These and other 



178 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

striking characters make historical ideas real and 
significant to us. 

The following narrative of the plans and efforts for putting 
steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers shows how 
much descriptive and concrete material is needed in order to 
bring out the full meaning of such a topic. 

STEAMBOATING ON THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS 

Outline of topics 

1. Fulton and the Clermont. 

2. The problem of putting steamboats on the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers. 

3. Fulton and Livingston send Roosevelt down the Ohio on a 
flatboat. 

4. Roosevelt's report and the building of the New Orleans. 

5. Roosevelt's trip by steamboat from Pittsburg to Louis- 
ville. 

6. Passing the falls and down the river to New Orleans. 

7. Growth of steamboat traffic on the Western rivers. 

8. Development of shipping in the Great Lakes. Compari- 
sons. 

1. Robert Fulton, the inventor of steamboats, had his 
early triumph on the Hudson River. After his first success in 
building the Clermont, the steamboat which made the fam- 
ous voyage from New York to Albany, in 1807, Fulton began 
to think of building steamboats for the Western rivers. „ 

2. The Mississippi and its large branches, the Ohio and 
Missouri, offered a far larger and more important system of 
navigation for steamboats than the Hudson and other small 
rivers in the East. Fulton knew that if he could put steam- 
boats on the Mississippi, the results would be of immense 
importance for commerce. Heavy freight was easily floated 
down the Mississippi from Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, etc., on 
flatboats, but, on account of the swift current, these boats 
could not be sent back upstream. The only way to ship 
freight up the river from New Orleans was by keel-boats, 
which were poled upstream, slowly and with great difficulty, 
by keel-boatmen. It was a slow and expensive method. 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 179 

The difficulty of propelling a steamboat against the swift 
current of the Ohio or Mississippi was also much greater than 
on the Hudson. There is but little current on the Hudson on 
account of the tide which rises daily nearly to Albany. In- 
deed, it was very doubtful whether the steamboat could make 
headway at all against the swift and powerful currents found 
in many parts of the Western rivers. It would be a very 
expensive and doubtful undertaking to build the first steam- 
vessel to try its chances in such waters. The cost would be 
about forty thousand dollars, and people were not in haste to 
spend so large a sum in such an uncertain project. The en- 
gines required would be much more powerful and costly. 
Machine shops for building engines and boats for such work 
were not then found along the Western rivers. 

3. Mr. Fulton and Mr. Robert Livingston, of New York, 
who had worked together in building and launching the Cler- 
mont, decided to make a careful examination of the currents 
of the Western rivers before entering upon the project of 
building the first steamboat for the Ohio. 

In the spring of 1809, they sent Mr. Nicholas Roosevelt to 
Pittsburg, with instructions to make a voyage down the 
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, study the currents, eddies, 
sandbars, and other obstructions of navigation, and report to 
them later the actual difficulties to be met. 

Early in the spring Mr. Roosevelt and his young wife 
reached Pittsburg, where he at once began the building of a 
flatboat with which to make the journey down the rivers. 
When it was completed, they embarked for a long and tedi- 
ous journey of six months to New Orleans. Mrs. Roosevelt 
describes it as follows : — 

"The journey in the flatboat commenced at Pittsburg, 
where Mr. Roosevelt had it built. There was a huge box con- 
taining a comfortable bedroom, dining-room, pantry, and a 
room in front for the crew, with a fireplace where the cooking 
was done. The top of the boat was flat, with seats and an 
awning. We had on board a pilot, three hands, and a man 
cook. We always stopped at night, lashing the boat to the 
shore. The rowboat was a large one, in which Mr. Roosevelt 
went out constantly with two or three of the men to ascertain 
the rapidity of the ripples or current. It was in this rowboat 
we went from Natchez to New Orleans with the same crew. 



180 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

We reached New Orleans about the 1st of December, 1809, 
and took passage for New York in the first vessel we found 
ready to sail." 

At Cincinnati and Louisville and other cities Mr. Roose- 
velt was received in the most friendly manner. But when he 
explained to the merchants and business men his purpose of 
building a steamboat to travel up and down these rivers, they 
could not help smiling at such a foolish notion. The old pi- 
lots and boatmen who had spent their lives on the great river 
and knew by hard experience all its freakish ways, made it 
plain that they considered Mr. Roosevelt an escaped lunatic. 
But he went on about his business without heeding their jokes. 
He even made contracts with men along the river, who owned 
coal-mines, to pile up coal on the banks at various points for 
use by the steamboat which he proposed to build the follow- 
ing year at Pittsburg. 

4. When he got back to New York and laid a full report 
before Mr. Fulton and Mr. Livingston, they all agreed that a 
steamboat could be built to travel both ways, up and down 
stream, on the Mississippi. Mr. Fulton worked out complete 
plans and all the details for the construction of the boat, and 
for the building of the engines. Having studied out these 
plans with great care, and with full advice from Mr. Fulton, 
early in the spring of 1910, Mr. Roosevelt and his wife went 
to Pittsburg. 

He at once made preparations for the difficult work of 
constructing the first steamboat on the Ohio and Mississippi. 
At a level spot below the bluff by the river-bank, and near an 
iron foundry, he laid down the keel of the new vessel. The 
boat was to be one hundred and sixteen feet long, with a 
twenty-foot beam, and the engines were made more power- 
ful than for the Clermont on the Hudson, because of the 
strong current on Western rivers. There was no suitable 
lumber at Pittsburg for such ship construction, so workmen 
were sent up the river to cut down trees from the forest and 
find the ribs, knees, and beams required. The logs were 
floated down the river to the shipyard, where they were 
sawed up into boards and timbers in the old-fashioned saw- 
pits. They did not wait for these timbers to become sea- 
soned . Ship carpenters and machinists had been brought from 
New York, as there were no workmen at Pittsburg who could 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 181 

do this kind of ship-building. Pittsburg at this time did not 
have suitable shops for doing the required ironwork. 

Several floods in the river at Pittsburg covered the ship- 
yards and nearly floated the new boat into the river before 
it was finished. But in spite of all difficulties, the vessel was 
completed in September, 1811, and launched. The name 
"New Orleans" was given her, but many people feared she 
would never reach the city of that name. 

Mrs. Roosevelt, in spite of the fears and forebodings of her 
friends, was determined to go on the first voyage down the 
river with her husband. Her friends were so anxious to pre- 
vent her from going upon this dangerous voyage that they 
threatened to imprison her and keep her safe till the boat 
had departed. 

5. After a trial trip in the Monongahela, in which the little 
steamer moved upstream and was easily managed in the cur- 
rent, a crew of fifteen people, including captain, engineer, 
pilot, cook, and workmen, was secured, and they embarked 
for the trip to New Orleans. A great crowd on the banks 
cheered them as they started, and soon the boat was making 
eight or ten miles an hour downstream. The engines worked 
smoothly, and the boat was easily guided in the current by 
the pilot at the wheel. "Mr. Roosevelt was too much excited 
to sleep on the first night of the voyage, but paced the deck 
or stood or sat near the pilot from evening until morning." 
The second day they reached Cincinnati and were greeted by 
old acquaintances made in their former flatboat trip. "Well, 
you are as good as your word," said some of the visitors,"you 
have come in a steamboat, but we see you for the last time. 
Your boat may go down the river, but as to coming up it, the 
very idea is an absurdity." * On the fourth day out from 
Pittsburg they reached Louisville, where a public dinner was 
given them, although most people believed that it was the 
last steamboat that would be seen on the upper Ohio. 

Mr. Roosevelt also gave a dinner on the boat. "While the 
feast was at its height there was a rumbling that brought 
everybody to his feet and caused a rush to the deck. All the 
guests thought the steamer had escaped from her anchor and 
was drifting towards the falls of the Ohio, where everybody 

1 Knox, Life of Robert Fulton. 



182 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

would be lost. Their dismay was changed to pleasure when 
they found she was steaming up the river, and as she warmed 
to her work and increased her speed, they found themselves 
carried more rapidly than they had ever traveled before on 
water. Many of the incredulous were thus convinced of the 
success of their enterprise, and faith in the steamboat was 
greatly increased. 1 

At this time the Ohio was at low-water stage, and boats 
could not pass over the falls at Louisville. They were thus 
compelled to wait for a rise of water in the river. During this 
period of waiting, Mr. Roosevelt took a return voyage up the 
river to Cincinnati. When the steamboat reached Cincinnati, 
the people were still more astonished, as they now perceived 
that such a vessel could steam up the river against the current. 

6. Returning to Louisville, a rise of the water in November 
made the passage of the boat down the rapids and falls pos- 
sible. But it was dangerous, as there were but five inches' 
depth to spare. They engaged a special pilot, and putting on 
all steam, made a swift dash over the falls. "Rocks rose on 
either side of the channel, the water dashed in spray on the 
deck of the boat, and sometimes the New Orleans seemed to 
pitch forward, as though about to be swallowed up. Every 
one grasped some part of the boat for safety, and even the 
big Newfoundland dog shook with terror as he crouched at 
the feet of Mr. Roosevelt. It was 'une mauvaise quart 
d'heure,' as the French say, but it was well and swiftly over. 
The danger was passed and the New Orleans rounded to at 
the foot of the falls, where they discharged the pilot who had 
accompanied them through the dangerous channel." 

According to the agreement of the year before, Mr. Roose- 
velt found the coal ready, "and took on as much as the boat 
would carry. When this was exhausted, he took in wood 
wherever he could find it. At least once in twenty -four hours 
the boat stopped for wood; there were no wood-yards then 
as in later days, and in nearly every instance the work of 
cutting and preparing the desired fuel was performed by the 
crew." 

Before reaching the Mississippi they were disturbed by the 
earthquakes which shook the region south of Cairo on both 

1 Knox, Life of Robert Fulton. 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 183 

sides of the river in the fall of 1811. The earthquake shocks 
continued for many days and nights. A comet was also seen 
in the sky and the people were afraid and superstitious. "At 
some places where the boat stopped for wood, the Indians 
came out and talked, by signs and a few words of English, 
with the men. They seemed to believe that the steamboat 
had some connection with the comet, as the sparks from the 
chimney bore a marked resemblance to its fiery tail. They 
also attributed the smoky atmosphere to the steamer, and 
thought the earthquake was caused by the beating of the 
paddles." 1 

In spite of all these fears and difficulties the New Orleans 
made its course successfully down the river to Natchez and 
then to New Orleans. It was then put on regular runs back 
and forth between Natchez and New Orleans, and was the 
first steamboat to make regular trips on the Mississippi. It 
was soon followed by other steamers. 

7. The Enterprise was the first steamboat to make the 
whole journey up the river from New Orleans to Pittsburg in 
1815. It was an event for public rejoicing at Louisville and 
Pittsburg. During the next twenty years steamboats became 
numerous not only on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri 
Rivers, but on many smaller tributary streams in the 
West. The boats were flat-bottomed and had a light draft 
— in smaller steamboats, not more than a foot and a half. 
Steamboat traffic on the Western rivers was at its height be- 
tween 1850 and 1860. At that time there were more than 
eight hundred steamboats on the Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries. The largest of them could carry a cargo of three 
thousand tons besides several hundred passengers. 

After the Civil War, steamboat traffic on these rivers de- 
creased and in the last few years has been unimportant. At 
the same time the railroad traffic has greatly increased and 
has largely taken the place of water traffic. 

8. On the Great Lakes the first steamboat appeared at 
Buffalo in 1818. It was called "The Walk-in-the- Water." 
In 1832 the first steamboat reached Chicago. With the 
opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 the commerce of the Great 
Lakes rapidly increased. It has gone on increasing from year 

1 Knox, Life of Robert Fulton. 



184 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

to year till it is now of vast importance. The vessels on the 
Great Lakes have a deep draft like those on the ocean and 
are built of steel and iron like those in the ocean trade. 

The products carried on the Great Lake vessels are chiefly 
iron ore, lumber, grain, and coal, and an extensive passenger 
traffic has grown up in the summer-time. At Detroit, Cleve- 
land, and other Lake ports extensive shipbuilding yards have 
been established and a large number of big lake vessels are 
turned out every year. 

It is of interest to consider why water traffic has continued 
to increase rapidly on the Great Lakes while it has almost 
disappeared on the rivers. 

References. 

Robert Fulton. Biography by T. W. Knox. Putnam & Son. 
Robert Fulton, by R. H. Thurston. Dodd, Mead & Co. 
Life on the Mississippi. Mark Twain. Harpers. 
The Story of Illinois. Nida. O. P. Barnes, Chicago. 
From Trail to Railway. Brigham. Ginn & Co. 

II. FORM AND CONTENT 

The old saying "the letter killeth but the spirit giv- 
eth life" expresses the sharpest contrast between the 
two things about which the schoolmaster is deeply con- 
cerned. All thought must express itself in some form 
or come to nothing, and a form that expresses no 
thought is worthless. Thought and form, therefore, 
should always be found close together if not in absolute 
union. A complete divorce between the two is im- 
possible. 

Man has invented and slowly brought to perfection 
the forms or symbols through which he now expresses 
his thought. First of all is language in its many phases. 
The formal systems for expressing ideas are among the 






TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 185 

most remarkable products of man's invention, as alpha- 
bets in writing or print, notation in mathematics and 
in music, chemical symbolism, short-hand, punctua- 
tion, etc. So indispensable are these forms or symbols 
in all thinking, and in communicating thought, that 
great importance has been attached to their mastery 
and proper use. Practical people and business men 
have come to judge a child's success in learning largely 
by his mastery and use of symbols. It is not strange 
that some schoolmasters followed this lead and gave 
undue emphasis to the mere forms and symbols of 
knowledge. The ability to write and spell and read and 
cipher was long regarded as the essential part of an 
education. But this tendency to the mastery of forms 
and of formal arts can be easily overdone. 

The history of schools and of courses of study during 
the last three hundred years demonstrates a constant 
and powerful tendency toward one-sided formalism, 
especially toward linguistic forms, grammar, etc. The 
reformers have fought against this narrow routine, and 
in recent years with increasing success. There has 
been, thus, an age-long quarrel between those who 
favor studies of a formal type and those demanding 
a rich thought content in school subjects. Whole sys- 
tems of education have been strongly tagged with one 
or the other of these features. In all sound education 
one would naturally think that these two essential ele- 
ments, form and thought, should be closely combined, 
and we may well be disappointed at this universal 
tendency in schools to run to extremes and to separate 



186 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

them as if they were hostile to each other. In all 
studies a close combination of these two elements 
should be earnestly sought. In superior literature and 
in fine art, the two elements are well balanced and com- 
bined. The perfection which is the supreme quality in 
literature and art is the masterly union of form and 
thought. In human behavior at its best, we likewise 
find this intimate blending of idea and form, whose 
proper combination gives us good manners. The ideal 
result to be aimed at in all conduct is, as far as practi- 
cable, a proper blending of form and thought. 

The older course of study known to our fathers, by 
its emphasis of reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, 
and grammar, was predominantly formal; our recent 
course has been growing richer in the thought content 
of literature, geography, history, and of science, with 
perhaps some neglect of form. On the question as to 
the relative values of the older formal studies and of the 
newer thought studies, educators have been at vari- 
ance. The conservatives emphasize the traditional 
form studies, and are suspicious of the new subjects. 
Progressive teachers have thrown themselves with zeal 
into the superior thought content of the new studies, 
and sometimes ridicule the small pedantry of the old 
spelling, writing, reading, and grammar. 

In the actual practice of the schools a sharp conflict 
of opinion still prevails as to whether form or content 
should take the lead in the early teaching of reading, 
singing, writing, map-drawing, and language. Some 
still insist that the elementary forms must be first mas- 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 187 

tered, and that a separate period of preliminary drill 
must be allowed to the mastery of these symbols and 
forms. In their opinion, the transition to richer thought 
material comes later. Others have insisted that inter- 
esting and valuable thought must predominate from 
the beginning, and that the necessary forms and sym- 
bols can be taken up and absorbed incidentally into the 
thought studies. Thus isolated and preliminary drills 
on forms are not necessary. A large amount of ingen- 
uity has been expended by primary teachers and by 
thoughtful experts in pedagogical science in illustrating 
the two sides of this controversy. The two views have 
been drawing closer together and form and thought 
have been brought to a more intimate relation. The 
result so far is not a decisive victory on either side, al- 
though great progress has been made toward the 
thought enrichment of primary studies. Some of the 
crude, old-fashioned formal drills have disappeared. 
At the present moment improved formal drills are 
maintaining themselves with good success in the 
schools. These formal exercises are being systematized 
and reduced to their lowest terms. At the same time 
vigorous thought matter is brought into the closest pos- 
sible relation to these essential drills. When the formal 
element has been reduced to a minimum, — e.g., when 
we get phonetic spelling, giving a child independence 
in learning to read, — there will still remain a difficulty 
in adjusting form to thought, demanding skill upon the 
part of the teachers. 

This controversy between the opposing advocates 



188 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

of thought and form is a basal difficulty that extends 
into all studies in higher and lower schools. For exam- 
ple, the question is constantly rising, Shall we require 
children to use correct forms in English in all studies 
when they recite? On this point teachers always fall 
into dispute. It does not seem possible to give this 
question a final and positive answer, because it is a 
matter of close and tactful adjustment. Good English 
is a thing to be striven for in every recitation, but care- 
ful teachers are willing to overlook some errors of 
speech if they can get children to think vigorously and 
to speak, in the main, correctly. The standard of excel- 
lence must be relative and changing. Children are in 
the process of attaining power of thought and of lan- 
guage fit for its expression. It must be more or less a 
field of compromise and ready adjustment, and the 
teacher is called upon to mediate constantly between 
the two requirements of correct thought and correct 
speech. The teacher is not the one who should take 
extreme grounds on either side of this issue. Perfection 
is not gained at one bound, but by steady, persistent, 
and reasonable pressure on both points. 

The history of education shows that educators at 
times have gone to a ridiculous extreme on the one side 
of formalism, illustrated by Latin as treated in second- 
ary schools. In recent years there has been a decided 
swing of the pendulum in the opposite direction and a 
consequent neglect of form. As a result correctness 
and purity of speech are not a mark of our times. The 
tendency toward formalism is a marked trait of human 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 189 

nature in law and religion as well as in education. 
Religion flows into creeds and rituals and formal pat- 
terns of worship. Christianity has found it necessary, 
in order to save itself from lifeless formalism, to return 
again and again to the original sources of spiritual 
power and to break up old forms. Law ever has a 
tendency to petrify into a series of precedents, fixed 
statutes, and constitutions. But the basis of both 
religion and law is a spiritual energy which constantly 
modifies the old forms and recasts them into the new. 
Good government must constantly provide for a read- 
justment of old forms and constitutions to the new and 
growing spirit of the times. Education must daily 
redeem itself from this tendency toward formalism. 
While the teacher, therefore, should thoroughly disci- 
pline children in the correct forms of expression, his 
business is first of all to arouse thought, to vitalize a 
child's mind with ideas. The two must be worked in 
constant relation to each other and brought into a 
strong unity, because neither can be brought to a 
proper degree of perfection without the other. 

The thought enrichment of the common-school cur- 
riculum in recent years has come from all the main 
reservoirs of knowledge, from the nourishing litera- 
ture of all countries, from nature-study and applied 
science, from the industrial and mechanic arts, from 
fine art and music, from the history of America and 
Europe, and from fruitful biography. The modern 
school is rich in practical and useful knowledge; it 
abounds, also, in the choice literary and art products 



190 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

of many lands. This extraordinary enrichment might 
seem, at first glance, to have pushed the formal studies 
to one side. Not at all. Observe only the variety of 
studies and exercises in the school to-day whose one 
direct purpose is to master the English language as a 
means of expression. The list runs as follows: — 

Learning to read in primary grades. This requires 
about three years of steady effort. It should be com- 
bined with story-telling and literature. 

Language lessons, extending through six grades. 

Writing and printing, long-continued motor exer- 
cises in mastering forms. 

Spelling and punctuation and readiness in use, drills, 
etc. 

Composition exercises in all grades and theme-writ- 
ing in upper schools. 

Phonics, careful and systematic drills and applica- 
tions. 

Dictionary or diacritical markings, abbreviations 
and their constant use. 

Grammar, especially in grammar grades. Correct 
speech based on grammar. 

Rhetoric and versification. Finally, attention to 
language in all studies. 

To these may be added the symbolisms used in chem- 
istry, arithmetic, and algebra, and in musical notation, 
with their exercises continuing for years. 

In addition to this, every special subject has its own 
peculiar technical phraseology which must be mas- 
tered while working at its thought content; e.g., special 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 191 

and technical terms in botany, physiology, chemistry, 
music, drawing, geography, etc. 

Such a survey of the actual situation reveals to us 
the overwhelming importance of the formal element in 
our common-school education. The great problem is 
how to economize time and effort in the mastery of 
these forms, and at the same time to allow the thought 
element its rightful predominance in studies. 

The inherent difficulty lies in the fact, first, that the 
mastery of forms for ready use is in itself a very serious 
undertaking, and, second, that the acquisition of new 
and difficult trains of thought is an absorbing intellec- 
tual effort which tends to monopolize attention. These 
two modes of thought are also somewhat oppositional 
in quality, and to combine them both in one mental 
act, so complicated and difficult, requires a decided 
stretch of mental effort. It means the doing of two di- 
verse and strenuous things at the same time. In his 
progressive advance into studies, the child is constantly 
facing this requirement to form new, difficult, and 
complex habits of thought. The child and the teacher, 
too, are tempted to separate these difficulties and mas- 
ter them one at a time. But it is dangerous to divorce 
two things that belong so close together. The moment 
we set one of these things off by itself and try to master 
it, we discover that we need the other. Thought cannot 
travel far without correct form to lean upon. Again 
the learning and drill upon forms, without inspiring 
thought, quickly degenerate into dull and formal rou- 
tine. The child must be constantly facing both these 



192 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

difficulties, and the problem for the teacher is how to 
emphasize both alike, and how to bring about a con- 
stant interplay between thought and form, so as to 
produce a complex habit, namely, the expression of 
correct thought in correct form. 

The teacher is the one who must be clearly conscious 
of this aim, and set his purpose and organize his means 
to bring about this result. A narrow partisanship lean- 
ing toward formalism, and a brusque contempt for cor- 
rect forms and modes of expression on the assumption 
that thought is the one essential thing, are alike repug- 
nant to that rational and liberal spirit which should 
characterize the teacher. The teacher cannot afford 
to be a stubborn and illiberal partisan in such contro- 
versies. Practical education is so full of these dualisms 
that it furnishes frequent and easy opportunity to pick 
quarrels if one is so disposed. But the teacher can 
hardly afford to waste his energy and spoil the fruits of 
education in such disputes. Partisanship may be per- 
missible in politics and in some other callings, but in 
education, breadth and liberality of mind, combined 
with complete and thorough mastery of both sides of 
fundamental issues, are necessary to an educator. The 
problem for the teacher lies in developing and organiz- 
ing harmony out of such diverse and seemingly oppos- 
ing tendencies. The well- trained child is the expression 
of this harmonized result. 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 193 

Cases of marked tendencies toward formalism 

1. Excessive drill on the careful verbal analysis of prob- 
lems and processes in arithmetic in intermediate 
grades. The exact memorizing of long rules, govern- 
ing the processes in arithmetic, sometimes before 
the processes themselves are clearly illustrated and 
understood. 4 Such exercises are vexatious and almost 
fraudulent. 

2. The old alphabet method of learning to read still 
used in some schools. A simple, well-organized 
phonetic method, on the other hand, which enables 
children to help themselves, is a pronounced aid in 
gaming the power to read. 

3. The oral spelling of rare and difficult words, often 
without a knowledge of meanings, is a waste of 
time needed for better purposes. 

4. The humdrum reading of selections from the read- 
ing-book without clear thought and vital expres- 
sion. Such work is listless and unintelligent. 

5. A grammatical drill and routine in Latin which 
pays little attention to the content of literature. 
Grammatical parsing and construing in English is 
often carried to excess. 

6. Learning and locating many facts in geography 
with little sense or meaning. The same with mere 
facts and dates in history. Fact-cramming in any 
subject, without developing intelligence, is essen- 
tially a formal, empty exercise. 

7. The memorizing of proverbs, poems, songs, hymns, 



194 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

catechisms, and classifications which do not ap- 
peal to a child's intelligence or sense of values, is 
irrational and conducive to thoughtlessness and 
dullness. 
8. The forms of politeness, cultivated without the 
spirit of kindness and good will, suggest that formal 
education easily becomes false and hypocritical. 

Instances showing neglect of forms and over-emphasis 
of mere thought and content 

1. Children's common use of faulty and ungrammat- 
ical English in reciting their lessons. They are 
in need of more specific, practical language drills 
in correcting common faults, and they should be 
held to higher standards of correct expression in all 
studies. 

2. Teachers and children often are careless about cor- 
rect and exact phraseology in arithmetic. Such 
slovenly and inaccurate language must be a mark 
of careless thinking. It shows a low standard and 
loose habits of thought. 

3. For lack of phonetic drills, children fail to speak 
with distinct articulation, and with correct utter- 
ance of vowel sounds. Final consonants and short 
vowels are slurred and neglected. Teachers, in 
common with children, are untrained and negli- 
gent. 

4. The careful, formal outlining of oral lessons in 
geography, history, and science, showing signifi- 
cant main headings, is often neglected. This group- 



TWO IMPORTANT CONTRASTS 195 

ing and organization of thought material in well- 
selected, well-expressed headings is necessary as a 
basis for good mastery and reproduction. Other- 
wise oral lessons are loose, careless, and inco- 
herent. Simple, strong, formal outlines are needed. 

5. The essential forms of letter- writing, paragraphing, 
capitalization, abbreviations, correct spelling of 
common words, and clear, legible handwriting re- 
quire in many schools more definite attention. In 
these things children are not brought to standards 
of form. 

6. The English language is carelessly and often er- 
roneously spoken and written by many who have 
completed courses even in our higher schools (not 
to mention slang and vulgarisms). In some cases 
this appears as a mark of intellectual degeneracy 
among people of education. 

7. Roughness, crudeness, and lack of polish in man- 
ners are regarded by some persons as a mark of 
independence and originality. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CLASS INSTRUCTION AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 

One of the perplexing problems for a teacher in any 
school is that of combining class instruction with a 
proper regard for individuals. Most of our teaching is 
conducted in classes and has strong elements of the 
social spirit. There is cooperation and mutual help- 
fulness in a well-conducted class, especially where 
freedom of discussion and interchange of thought 
prevail; where honest inquiry can be made and fair 
and friendly criticism exercised. The discussion of a 
difficult problem from various points of view, and as 
influenced by different temperaments and modes of 
judging, when conducted by a well-poised teacher, is 
a good training in deliberate and balanced modes of 
thinking. The suggestions of one mind are helpful 
and broadening to another. 

There may be also a natural, healthy social rivalry. 
The spirit of emulation stimulates effort. Even debate 
may push one into more careful and exact thinking 
and arouse the mind to more energetic action. The 
opposite ways in which different minds approach and 
appropriate a new subject are mutually suggestive 
and corrective. 

The guidance of the teacher is necessary to hold the 
discussion within proper bounds. Questions and criti- 
cisms and rebuttals are necessary to expose fallacies. 



CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 197 

But the different students may contribute much to 
the proper survey and balancing-up of the subject. 
In these various ways a judicious teacher can train 
children in the organization of new thought material, 
can bring them to a proper grouping of the facts and 
to logical modes of reasoning upon the facts. In such 
competitive and cooperative discussions a whole class 
may be trained together into correct modes of thinking 
and into right habits of study. 

In reading-lessons, the entire class may become a 
critical and receptive audience, and each reader in 
turn is responsible for making the thought of the book 
stand out in clear and interesting presentation. In 
discussing literary selections, there is a wide range of 
fruitful interpretation and of social application. ^Es- 
thetic and moral ideals are presented in striking im- 
agery, to which the united social spirit of the class may 
respond. In dramatization, also, the cooperative and 
class spirit is especially called into play. 

Music is distinctively socializing in its effects. It 
awakens common emotions and sympathies, as in 
patriotic and home-loving songs. The rhythm and 
harmony of music bring all minds together into one 
tempo. The modern rhythmic movements and folk- 
songs are having a pronounced influence in giving 
children easy and flexible manners and a happy social 
spirit. Many of the school games, played by classes, 
are helpful in the same way. Class gymnastics and 
drills are a training in common or joint activity. 

In most studies there are interesting and stirring 



198 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

class exercises which develop enthusiasm and strong 
mental effort. Rapid concert drills in phonics, in oral 
arithmetic, in geography and spelling tests, in re- 
peating memorized selections, in free arm movements 
in writing, and in various speed tests are invaluable 
means of giving tone and thoroughness to class-work. 
A reasonable amount of friendly rivalry in such tests 
is legitimate and even helpful in the growth of social 
spirit. In class instruction the teacher becomes an 
organizer of social spirit, both in the effort to discuss 
and illuminate valuable topics and also in the varied 
common drills and rivalries of the school program. 
Class instruction is based upon the common feelings 
and impulses of human nature and upon the similari- 
ties in mental processes. It unites people along lines 
of thought and sentiment where they harmonize easily 
and work together to a common result. 

The smooth management and direction of a school 
depend upon the leader's tact in properly touching 
and unifying the scattered personal elements so as to 
bring them into sympathy and cooperation. They are 
capable of flying to pieces so as to produce confusion. 
Like a piano-player, the teacher must know what 
chords to strike so as to bring harmony out of apparent 
discord. So far as a science of school and class manage- 
ment is concerned, teachers have been left to work out 
this problem pretty much for themselves. It is a 
difficult social art, that should be based upon social 
science. But social science is not yet very clearly and 
definitely developed. A practical sociology would be 



CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 199 

more helpful to a teacher than psychology, because 
it would explain social spirit in its origin and growth, 
while psychology deals mainly with individual spirit. 
Sociology itself is a rapidly developing science, and 
more recently the aim of education and the function 
of the school have been set forth as fundamentally 
and chiefly social, i.e., in terms of social science. 

It goes without saying that the teacher should be a 
completely developed, all-round social creature. On 
this basis and with a clear knowledge of the aim of the 
school and of the main lines upon which its activities 
are to be grouped and combined, he may attack the 
problem of management with some hope of success. 
It is worth something at least to center the attention 
of the teacher upon the social forces that must be 
understood and brought into cooperation to secure a 
happy organization of school forces. 

On the strictly practical side, teaching in classes 
is one of the large and necessary economies. The 
teacher who can handle twenty to forty children suc- 
cessfully in one class is doing double, quadruple, yes, 
twenty-fold duty. He is like a skillful invention that 
does the work of twenty men. He is an expert in the 
social manipulation and guidance of a large group 
of developing minds. All public school systems 
are based upon this conception of mental likeness and 
social uniformity as a basis for the grouping of con- 
siderable numbers under the tuition of one person. 
Any other conception of public universal education 
would be extremely expensive if not impossible. 



200 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

In two respects the Germans emphasize this social 
principle in teaching and school discipline more than 
we in America. First, on the average, they apportion 
a much larger number of pupils to each teacher than 
do we in the United States. In 1906, throughout the 
German Empire, the average number of pupils to each 
teacher was fifty-eight, certainly a much larger aver- 
age than ours. Secondly, the extensive use of an oral 
method of instruction, either by development and 
discussion or by direct lecture, distinguishes the Ger- 
man schools. Children learn their lesson during the 
class recitation, from the skillful oral presentation of 
the teacher, and reproduce it at once under his criti- 
cism. This implies confidence in the teacher's power 
to handle large numbers and cause them to think to- 
gether and move along together through difficult lines 
of thought. In America, we are more inclined to allow 
a child to work by himself at his desk and then come 
to the class to test out and revise what he has thus 
learned in his own way. During recent years we have 
been cultivating skill in oral instruction in primary 
grades and less in the upper grades. In other words, 
our instruction is relatively lacking in the social co- 
operative spirit that marks German schools. 

In spite of this, our school systems and all our in- 
struction, in a variety of ways, are taking on a strong 
community and social spirit. Both our theory of class- 
room instruction and our practice are developing 
rapidly toward class unity, to simultaneous class 
movement and progress, to class spirit and standards. 






CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 201 

In the history of education, on the other hand, and 
in our present practice, we find a marked tendency in 
the opposite direction — to individualism. Many 
sensible teachers and thinkers claim that a better form 
of instruction is the individualistic. On account of 
peculiar temperament and special mental quality, 
each child is a problem, requiring particular considera- 
tion and treatment. Teachers, like physicians, should 
diagnose each case, and apply remedies and treatment 
accordingly. The tutorial system, in private families 
and at the universities, has been often approved as 
the most effective form of teaching. It brings the 
teacher into close personal relation to one or a very 
few students, so that instruction is adjusted to the 
individual need. In this connection, by observation 
and deliberate thought, the instructor may under- 
stand the child and think out a suitable mode of treat- 
ment. In history there are some famous illustrations 
of this kind, as in the case of the philosopher Aristotle, 
who for some years was tutor to the youthful Alex- 
ander. Ascham taught the Princess Elizabeth. Her- 
bart devoted himself for several years to the training 
of three boys in a Swiss family. Fenelon was peculiarly 
successful in educating the French dauphin. Rous- 
seau's Emile, the most famous book on education, 
is worked out on this plan. John Locke's experience 
in teaching was gained as a tutor and adviser in 
English families, and his very interesting treatise, 
Thoughts on Education, is an elaboration of this mode 
of tuition. At the English universities for centuries, 



202 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

much of the best instruction has been of the tutorial 
sort. 

This tendency toward individual instruction crops 
out from time to time as a protest against the strong 
drift toward uniformity which would construct all 
children upon one dull pattern. The Batavia plan is 
a modification of class instruction in the interest of 
individual capacity, allowing each child to move along 
in part independently, as his ability and industry 
permit. Two teachers are employed in one room, one 
for class instruction, and one for individual attention 
in the preparation of lessons. 

The tutorial plan of instruction is necessarily ex- 
pensive and aristocratic. It has been in vogue in all 
countries that possessed a noble and wealthy class. 
It prevailed in the Southern States before the war. 
The introduction of a broad public school system, 
including expensive and well-equipped high schools, 
has everywhere pushed the tutorial system into the 
background. 

Yet a full and sympathetic appreciation of the in- 
dividualistic point of view is of high importance. As 
a rule we are not in danger of giving too much atten- 
tion to individuals. In the instruction and moral 
guidance of children it is of fundamental importance 
to understand and respect a child's individual traits 
and abilities. The child-study movement of recent 
years has turned our attention to the physiology and 
psychology of childhood and youth and to individual 
defects, abnormalities, and causes of retardation. It 



CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 203 

has also encouraged the study of individual children. 
The pedagogy also of the treatment of defectives is 
individualistic and throws much light upon school 
problems. A closer contact with parents in the home 
and in parents' meetings, and otherwise, will compel 
us to pay more attention to individual traits. The 
great stimulus toward vocational education and to 
vocational guidance which we are now witnessing is 
a demand for specialization along lines of individual 
preference and capacity. From this point of view 
children should be observed and developed with an 
eye to their future callings and in conformity to their 
natural ability and tastes. The elective system in 
colleges had a similar basis and tendency. 

It is beyond question that our prevailing methods 
of teaching large classes cause us to overlook the pecu- 
liarities and needs of individuals; that we get into the 
habit of thinking of children as of average ability and 
quality. As a matter of fact, the children of an ordi- 
nary class are widely and often surprisingly different 
in ability and temper. In discipline, on the basis 
of common principles, they require widely different 
modes of treatment. In scholarly lines, some can 
easily move along twice as rapidly as others. A few 
have marked ability in one direction, with compensat- 
ing weakness in other lines of study. To force all 
children to move along at one pace is unnatural and 
arbitrary. It imposes too heavy a burden upon a few 
and leaves the strong intellects without adequate 
stimulus to effort. 



204 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

In the general plan and organization of a great 
national system of schools, it is important to provide 
for a gradual sifting-out process by which not only 
the general culture of all students will be provided for, 
but strongly marked individual talents and capacities 
will be discerned, developed, and turned eventually 
into those channels of specialization where they will 
reach their full practical realization; just as in France 
to-day children who show signs of skill and talent in 
drawing and fine arts are picked out, encouraged, and 
finally directed to the higher schools of art where they 
may find means of turning their best talent into the 
service of society. 

Taking education as a whole, therefore, we may con- 
clude that these opposed tendencies toward class and 
individualistic instruction are of about equal impor- 
tance. How shall we reconcile and combine two such 
requirements, that which looks toward the strong 
social and group spirit in class instruction and that 
which demands a close and discriminating attention 
to individual ability (talent or weakness)? In the 
general management of a whole school and in each 
classroom this problem becomes very acute. At every 
moment in a live school we have this double problem 
on our hands. We are actually dealing with the school 
whole and with individuals. It surely demands alert- 
ness and versatility in the teacher to be prepared at 
any moment to respond to either or both of these calls. 
In entering any classroom when the work is on, the 
first important question or double question is this, Is 



CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 205 

there close class attention and cooperation in the work, 
and at the same time is proper consideration given 
to children who are careless or peculiar? The in- 
structor's mind must be swift in its movements back 
and forth between the class effort and the individual 
mental operations which diverge at various angles 
from this. Young teachers are at first weak in making 
this happy combination. Strong, experienced teach- 
ers acquire a remarkable versatility and readiness in 
meeting this double requirement. A very complex 
habit of attention must be acquired by the instructor, 
a sort of double or triple consciousness which can take 
in several diverse things almost simultaneously, — 
the thought movement of the whole class, the inatten- 
tive or careless attitude of one or more persons, the 
general discipline of the schoolroom, and, perhaps, one 
or two other diverting circumstances of the moment. 
Such complex habits of attention and of quick ad- 
justment to a constantly changing panorama of events 
are high accomplishments acquired only in the stress 
and struggle of vigorous class instruction. This is but 
another illustration of the broader scope and keenness 
of the teacher's mental activity in harmonizing two 
practical demands which are oppositional in character. 
This problem is so fundamental, so difficult, and so 
persistently present in teaching, that numerous de- 
vices have been resorted to so as to meet it successfully. 
First, the proper organization of the school as a whole 
(in a graded system) may get rid of many hindrances, 
as follows: The removal of incorrigibles from the room: 



206 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

this will give the teacher a reasonable chance to deal 
with the class; the proper grading of children so as to 
have those of approximately the same age and ability 
together; a well-devised curriculum which furnishes 
appropriate material of study for the children; a recita- 
tion room where one is not seriously disturbed by other 
classes and happenings in the neighborhood; suitable 
books, maps, blackboard, and apparatus. 

With all these conditions favorable, the teacher is in 
a position to concentrate upon the main problem. In 
handling any important lesson before a class, he needs 
such an organization and mastery of the subject that it 
makes him free to observe the class. With his eyes 
fixed on a textbook or outline, or anything else, he is 
not free to exert his personal influence upon the class 
and to see what is going on. 

While the main topics of the lesson are under consid- 
eration, the instructor is on the alert to drop a ques- 
tion upon any one who is inattentive or careless. 
When, because of inattention, a pupil has failed, as 
soon as the point has been stated again, he should be 
called upon to reproduce it. Steady pressure upon 
those who are thoughtless and scattering in attention 
will bring them into the class movement. When the 
main line of thought has been worked out, some have 
mastered the subject, others have fallen behind. Some- 
times it is advisable to let the abler ones restate the 
argument so that the poorer pupils may have a second 
chance to master it; and they should be called upon at 
the close to show what they can do. Or the brighter 



CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 207 

pupils, who have mastered the subject, may be assigned 
other tasks at the board or at their desks to employ 
their time. For slow pupils the instructor needs ready 
power of concrete illustration, and quick judgment to 
see where the trouble lies in a child's thinking. Chil- 
dren should be so treated that they feel free to ask 
questions and to confess their failure to understand. 

Keep before children the main line of argument and 
stick to this in the reproductions, drills, and tests. 

Have on hand a good supply of select topics with 
which to engage the brighter pupils while the slower 
ones are bringing up their work. 

In order to keep up the lively spirit and attention of 
a class, shift over frequently to a new kind of work. In 
other words, give spice and variety to the recitation.. 

At times the instructor should be sharply critical, at 
other times helpful and encouraging. 

Constantly throw responsibility upon pupils for full, 
clear statements, for reproductions demonstrating 
close attention, for work properly assigned, and for 
keeping up standards that are clearly understood. 

These are but a few of the suggestions that apply to 
this many-sided and difficult problem. 

In order to simplify the situation for room instruc- 
tion, an extra teacher is sometimes employed in a school 
building who will spend the time with special children 
or groups, giving drills, reviews, and explanations 
suited to individual needs. In any larger system of 
schools there ought to be some extra teachers who can 
devote their efforts to individuals (incorrigibles) and 



208 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE AND INSTRUCTION 

to small classes that cannot keep their place in regular 
work. Sometimes the principals of buildings are very 
helpful in this supplementary work. Some teachers are 
solicitous in giving helpful direction to special cases 
before and after school. 

One advantage peculiar to German schools is the fact 
that the teacher has usually (in graded schools) but one 
class before him, and he can thus aid and supervise 
children during their study periods. In the city of 
Mannheim, on the middle Rhine, children are sepa- 
rated into three classes during the third year of school: 
(1) those of good normal capacity and ability to do 
strong work; (2) those of mediocre capacity, and others 
who from any cause have fallen below the normal; (3) 
those of poor mentality and defectives. A full course 
of study is worked out for each of these groups (from 
eight to fourteen) . The presumption is that the first or 
upper class will move on more rapidly than if they were 
encumbered and retarded by pupils from each of the 
other groups. In the two lower groups, however, the 
classes are expected to do thoroughly and well what is 
assigned to them, because it is suited to their strength. 
This system of classification has been in vogue for 
twelve years and is a very serious and continuous 
effort to deal with this problem of class instruction. 
The connections are kept open between the three 
groups so that children may push forward to a higher 
group, or drop back as need arises. 



CLASS AND INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION 209 

Conclusion 

From this brief discussion it is clear that in adjusting 
himself to the social and individual needs of a class, 
the teacher is constantly facing a very difficult and 
many-sided problem. In preparing himself to meet 
this problem, he can engage in two lines of study: 
First, individual child study will broaden his knowledge 
of boys and girls, and discover to him the variety and 
richness in human nature. This sympathetic inquiry 
into the qualities and dispositions and physical make- 
up of children, together with introspection and revival 
of one's own childhood, furnishes the concrete basis 
upon which all broader study of psychology and soci- 
ology can be built. Second, school or class social spirit 
may be made an object of observation and of deliberate 
study. In fact, no one in the world has a better chance 
to get at the basal social elements upon which society 
is founded than have teachers. They should be ob- 
servers to collect social data and practical thinkers to 
organize such materials and draw valuable conclusions. 

On the ground of these two modes of observation 
and study, the teacher may then go to work construc- 
tively to figure out the main problem — the right com- 
bination of individual and social forces in the school 
program. 



PART II 

OPPOSING ELEMENTS IN GENERAL 

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 

AND THEORIES 



CHAPTER IX 

ANTITHETICAL ELEMENTS IN SCHOOL STUDIES 
I. THE IDEALISTIC AND THE USEFUL 

In the curriculum of studies we find deep cleavages 
which separate the branches of knowledge into oppos- 
ing groups, At least the representatives of each group 
are strongly partisan, and demand a monopoly of the 
educational field for their preferred studies. These 
contradictory tendencies, which lie in the very nature 
of different studies, have thrown educators into oppos- 
ing camps, which have maintained their hostility 
through centuries of educational history. 

Two special groups of knowledge stand out as widely 
divergent if not directly antagonistic. They are the 
idealistic and the directly useful. 

The idealistic spirit is shown in romance and in fic- 
tion. The fairy tales, the old myths and legends; the 
wonder stories, heroic ballads, and lyric poems; the 
humorous extravagances of Munchausen and Cer- 
vantes, the epic poems and dramas of Homer, Milton, 
and Shakespeare — all these belong to the kingdom of 
the imagination. Here truth takes on poetical and 
sometimes freakish forms, and plays tricks with sober 
reality. Some teachers have but little appreciation or 
sympathy for this realm of poetry and idealism. They 
do not respond to its imagery or partake freely of its 



214 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

spirit. Darwin confessed in his later years that he had 
lost the power to enjoy Shakespeare. People of this 
temper feel, however, that they have not lost much, 
because a richer and more practical field of study 
awaits them in natural science, in geography and the 
useful arts. Exact scientific and mathematical truth 
based on facts and observed reality is what interests 
them. 

This second group, the useful and realistic studies, 
includes natural science in field and laboratory, history 
and civics, mathematics, commercial and industrial 
geography, constructive work in the shops, school gar- 
dening and agriculture, health, hygiene and sanitary 
science, household arts, useful inventions and discov- 
eries, the biographies of explorers, business leaders, 
philanthropists, and social reformers, and the arts of 
reading, writing, and spelling as a preparation for 
practical life. 

These are a few of the really useful and valuable 
things most deserving of children's mental and physical 
effort. The course of study naturally divides itself 
into these two groups, on one side the ideal world of 
literature and fiction, on the other the practical world 
of utility. 

A large number of teachers, especially in high schools, 
stand completely immersed in one of these groups of 
study, and they show but little interest or respect for 
the other. Some, who have a decided preference for 
useful knowledge, show a certain inhospitality if not 
contempt for literature. The lovers of literary culture, 



ANTITHETICAL ELEMENTS 215 

on the other hand, have not tried to conceal their dis- 
dain for the narrowly or exclusively practical. It is a 
great good fortune for anybody, pupil or teacher, to 
become absorbingly interested in one or the other of 
these groups of study. Departmental work, even in 
grammar schools, rests upon the conviction that a 
teacher will do better work with children who has 
made an intensive study of one or two branches. In 
higher schools it is altogether well to be a deeply inter- 
ested specialist in one branch or group of sciences, and 
to prefer this. 

In the common school, however, we are not trying 
to develop children into specialists. On the contrary, 
we wish to broaden children out into full mental and 
moral stature. The teacher is supposed to be an all- 
round human being and to develop in children an all- 
round receptivity; that is, to open up all the main ave- 
nues of knowledge to every child. It is questionable 
whether a teacher in the elementary school should 
have an exclusive preference for any one study or group 
of studies; certainly not if he should lack cordiality and 
respect for other important studies. The whole ques- 
tion must be settled, not by the preferences of the 
teacher, but by a consideration of the needs of chil- 
dren; that is, what their nature and its best all-round 
development demand. 

Our present course of study is the result of a long 
historical development. This course, itself, is the ex- 
pression of the conviction that about equal importance 
attaches to the purely useful or utilitarian and to the 



216 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

idealistic studies. We may add that the natural and 
spontaneous interests of young people seem to indicate 
that they are quite as much predisposed to idealism as 
to utility studies. Here again the question arises, Why 
should there be any antagonism or bitterness between 
the partisans of these two group of studies? Each of 
these groups is indispensable to the proper education of 
a child. A larger conception of utility in studies is 
needed which will take in and combine both groups into 
one unified purpose. 

A good argument can be set up to prove that in 
higher utilities, poetry and works of the imagination 
are quite as useful to men as the commercial and indus- 
trial arts. In cultivating the higher feelings, senti- 
ments, and enjoyments of human life, in the moral and 
social improvement of society, the idealistic subjects of 
study hold the leading place and are likely to retain it. 
They express the nobler impulses of human life and the 
profounder sentiments of human nature at its best. 

From the historical point of view there has been an 
age-long conflict between literary studies and the nat- 
ural sciences. Since the revival of learning in the four- 
teenth and fifteenth centuries the natural sciences have 
been coming more and more into prominence and have 
competed with steadily increasing success with literary 
studies for a place in the curriculum. An examination 
of modern courses of study as historically developed 
will show that literature and linguistic studies main- 
tained almost a monopoly of school courses for several 
centuries, but the sciences and other modern studies 



ANTITHETICAL ELEMENTS 217 

gradually crept in until, in the latter part of the nine- 
teenth century, they sprang into full recognition. But 
while natural science has made a remarkable advance 
and has gained a large place for itself, literature and 
language still hold their own; only language study has 
shifted over to modern literature in place of the an- 
cient. The elementary school in recent years has much 
enriched its course in English and American literature, 
and even has taken much from other sources of world 
literature. 

The utilitarian studies at the present moment are 
coming into still greater prominence by the wide intro- 
duction of the industrial arts, of agricultural science, of 
health and sanitation, of vocational studies, and of 
commercial branches such as typewriting and stenog- 
raphy. Our education is becoming far more practical 
in its many-sided bearings upon present life. At the 
same time the course of study has grown far richer in 
idealistic or imaginative materials. This signifies an 
enrichment of the lives of children in both directions. 
Our schools are in duty bound to furnish all children 
the chance to expand and develop their natural powers 
in both these lines of thought. To do this the teacher 
must be large enough fully to realize the value of each 
great realm of knowledge. He should feel the neces- 
sity for combining them in order to make individual 
life complete. Conflict and contradiction between 
these groups of knowledge are out of place. The 
teachers should enlarge their sympathies and grasp the 
whole scope of education. 



218 EDUCATIONAL PEOBLEMS AND THEORIES 

Similar to the above conflict is the contrast between 
the artistic and the practical in several important 
studies. Herbert Spencer claims that the ornamental 
has preceded the useful in the evolution of the historical 
systems of education. The love of the beautiful and 
the artistic is deep-grained in human nature and the 
best exhibitions of art creation have appeared at the 
high points of civilization in different countries. Draw- 
ing for a long time has been the representative of the 
art idea in the curriculum. The shop- work of the man- 
ual arts was first introduced into schools as a practical 
and useful training. 

It is a curious result of the large introduction of the 
industrial arts in recent years that a new and very 
important phase of fine art has followed them. The 
manual arts, which were regarded as strictly useful, 
have been working over into the arts and crafts, which 
are strongly aesthetic. The whole range of industrial 
arts, including woodwork, textiles, clay-molding, and 
bookbinding, are taking on a controlling art idea. 
Artistic design is now becoming a superior dominant 
principle in all this industrial work. That which 
started out as purely utilitarian has put itself directly 
under the control of the higher art idea. The drawing 
and art department in schools is learning to relate it- 
self closely to the manual arts so as to throw art design 
into all constructions. This union of the two somewhat 
widely separated departments is not yet effected in 
many schools, but it is a strong and necessary drift 
toward a better combination of educational forces. It 



ANTITHETICAL ELEMENTS 219 

will materially strengthen both departments and give 
them, combined, a powerful influence upon schools and 
culture. The industrial arts are being elevated into a 
greater importance in training by absorbing into them- 
selves the artistic sentiment. 

The main difficulty is to get teachers who are broad 
enough in their sympathies and strong enough in their 
ability to combine two important and contrasted 
fields of study into one. It is relatively easy to be an 
expert in the technique of wood construction; it is not 
over-difficult to master the technique of drawing and 
elementary art; but to combine these lines of effort 
and appreciation — the union of the useful and artis- 
tic into one constructive product — is a far greater 
achievement and a more efficient kind of education. 
The failure to do this is apt to produce an antagonism 
which takes the place of cooperation between two lines 
of study that in their nature are already unified into one. 

We find, therefore, that this tendency to contradic- 
tion among studies where unity and cooperation should 
prevail, shows itself in two distinct and important 
phases : — 

(1) The idealistic and the useful, or the literary and 
the scientific. 

(2) The artistic and the practical. 

The failure to see this larger relation of unity and 
harmony is one of those signs of narrowness which too 
often marks the schoolmaster. The important con- 
sideration is that these studies cannot produce their 
proper effect upon the minds of children when those 



220 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

forces which should work together in harmony are rent 
asunder and thrown into narrow and foolish antago- 
nism. The one-sidedness and narrowness of the teacher 
become the one-sidedness and narrowness of the pu- 
pils, and error is thus perpetuated. 

Another striking contrast found in literary materials 
is that of 

II. THE SERIOUS AND THE HUMOROUS 

In selecting materials for school studies the serious 
and humorous elements should be properly mingled. 
The two elements are in striking contrast to each other 
and the humorous side is often neglected. The funda- 
mental tone of instruction should be strongly intellec- 
tual and vigorous. It should be thoroughly aggressive, 
pushing into new fields of knowledge and encountering 
hard problems and technical difficulties. This requires 
serious effort and a determined will. The necessity for 
strong, concentrated attention, for persistent struggle 
with difficulties, for original thinking power in organiz- 
ing new materials, the effort to give full expression to 
new ideas in adequate language, and the power to use 
and apply new principles to untried situations — all 
these require a complete and serious absorption in the 
subjects of study. But many teachers overdo the seri- 
ous attitude. They are too constantly strenuous. The 
face, the manner, and the inner spirit acquire a fixity 
that is too hard and unyielding. The teacher needs 
above some things a mobility and flexibility of spirit 
that fits easily into a great variety of moods. 



ANTITHETICAL ELEMENTS 221 

Humor is a solvent of stiff mannerisms. It takes the 
rigidity and cramp out of one's mental habits. It re- 
leases the strain and gets the children back into a 
wholesome attitude in readiness for a new and stronger 
effort. Humor is the natural antidote to austerity and 
harshness. 

Two other reasons may be assigned why humor 
should be a more or less constant ingredient of in- 
struction. The subject-matter that we deal with in 
studies is often humorous and loses its charm and 
meaning if not entertained in this humorous temper. 
Much of the best literature for school reading is funny 
or mildly humorous; Dickens's stories, for example; 
also Scott, Thackeray, Warner, Irving, Holmes, Gold- 
smith, Swift, and many more of our favorite writers 
cultivate a rich vein of humor or satire. Shakespeare, 
even in his tragedies, sparkles with fun and banter. 
He is wholesome in his natural mingling of the serious 
and humorous in life situations. Another reason is 
that many children possess a rich vein of humor which 
the school too seldom knows how to develop and utilize. 
Some children are natural humorists. They excel in 
this as others excel in music or mechanics. Why not 
somehow bring out these talents? They are worth much 
to the school and to society. I have heard an excellent 
teacher of arithmetic keep up a running fire of ques- 
tions and humorous suggestions which did not detract 
from the mental effort, but kept the children in fine 
spirit. The teacher should combine the serious and 
humorous temper and attitude. He should cultivate 



222 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

the ability to appreciate the funny side of life. It will 
put him on easier terms with children and with every- 
body. 

The joker is apt to become a bore, and, if he tries to 
be funny all the time, will degenerate into a clown. It 
is a task to be temperate if one has a real gift for fun. 
It is the mingling of the two elements that can give the 
classroom its best spirit. Lack of appreciation for humor 
is probably a sign of dullness and of mental obtuseness, 
of unsympathetic temper. Life itself, outside of the 
school, demands the mingling of these contrasted men- 
tal attitudes. Both the course of study and the method 
of instruction should partake of the serious and the 
humorous. 

If time permitted, we might take notice of many 
other contrasts in school studies and programs; the 
motor activities of the school are apart from the book- 
ish studies. Mental training and discipline are the 
opposite of the physical. The formal and symbolic 
studies are distinguished from those showing a rich 
content. The social studies differ widely from the 
purely intellectual, like mathematics. 



CHAPTER X 

CONTRASTS IN CHILD AND IN SOCIETY 

I. THE CHILD PHYSICAL AND MENTAL 

A group of these contrasts centers in the child him- 
self, and in his reactions upon his environment. 

First is the contrast of the physical and mental. The 
child is the focus of the most inscrutable contradiction, 
the coming together of the physical and mental in one 
organism. By some sort of creative act, which psy- 
chologists and thinkers have not been able to fathom, 
the immaterial mind has come into vital relation to 
the material body and we have a child. We might leave 
this metaphysical problem for philosophers to puzzle 
over, but it corresponds exactly to an important edu- 
cational problem or dilemma which teachers cannot 
escape. How shall we provide for the proper develop- 
ment of mind and body together? At times they have 
been thought of almost wholly apart and even regarded 
as antagonistic. 

We usually speak of the physical and mental train- 
ing as two separate things, each requiring its own par- 
ticular plans and equipment. Care for physical growth 
and health makes an interesting subject of study by 
itself. Likewise mental training is well recognized as 
an important and distinct field of scientific study. 

The schoolmaster has been accustomed to presup- 



224 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

pose satisfactory health conditions. On this basis he 
has thrown himself with special emphasis upon the 
problem of developing the child's mind. This is, indeed, 
an extensive field in which to operate. It includes not 
only the intellectual activities, but the feelings and 
sensibilities, the moral and aesthetic impulses and ideals. 
It is no wonder that teachers of strong ambition are 
completely absorbed in directing the mental and moral 
growth of young people who possess rich and varied 
mental endowments. 

Until a few years ago our psychology and pedagogy 
were almost wholly given over to a study of these 
mental qualities and to the branches of knowledge 
which contributed to their growth and improvement. 
The schools are still in the main devoted to intellectual 
and moral training, as shown by their time schedule, 
textbooks, and courses of study. Many teachers would 
be surprised, to-day, if told that their time and respon- 
sibility to any considerable degree extended to the 
physical improvement of children. The excessive re- 
quirements of mental training have often encroached 
upon the domain of physical health and well-being. 
Anxieties as to bodily health, physical growth, proper 
food and clothing, exercise, and special physical weak- 
nesses and ailments were left exclusively to the home 
and the physician. Teachers had their hands full with 
the intellectual and social discipline of the school. 

But the traditional attitude of the schoolmaster has 
undergone a change of late years. Psychology has 
become physiological. Pedagogy has become in part 



CONTRASTS IN CHILD AND IN SOCIETY 225 

child-care from the medical point of view. The grow- 
ing concern for health conditions in schools has turned 
our attention directly upon the physical basis of right 
living. Schoolboards and schoolmasters are summoned 
to the duty of making full provision for the physical 
as well as mental needs of children. The roominess 
and ventilation of schools, even to the extent in some 
cases of open-air conditions, large playgrounds with 
full time and equipment for outdoor sports, indoor 
playrooms, with games, physical movements and danc- 
ing, the various preventions of school contagions by 
expert medical inspections, home visitations by nurses, 
and quarantine, are becoming acknowledged necessi- 
ties. They are the inevitable prelude and companion 
to right conditions for study and mental improvement. 

Teachers and parents are beginning to realize that 
without these essential sanitary and health provisions, 
a schoolroom of thirty or forty children is one of the 
most effective organizations in society for collecting 
and distributing disease. Children are kept in close 
proximity and contact with each other several hours 
of the day. If there is any child in thirty families with 
an infectious disease, he has a chance to distribute it 
to all these families in a short time. Children are re- 
quired by law to go to school. Would it be unreason- 
able to require by law that all schoolrooms should be 
kept free as far as possible from contagious and in- 
fectious diseases, and from unsanitary conditions that 
impair physical health? 

Proper health conditions and sound physical devel- 



226 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

opment on the one side, and strong mental training, 
on the other, are not opposites. Yet it is easy to allow 
one to encroach upon the other till they become an- 
tagonistic. In each child they are bound together so 
intimately as to be phases in the action of one vital 
organism. Together they constitute a double prob- 
lem — of such breadth and many-sidedness that the 
average teacher may greatly broaden his interests and 
his range of practical knowledge so as to take in the 
entire situation intelligently and to combine them 
properly. 

Recent psychology has been turning a bright light 
upon the relations between body and mind. The more 
closely we examine the brain and the nervous system 
in their relation to the other bodily organs, the more 
close and interdependent these relations are found to 
be. The brain, as the instrument of the mind, is a 
physical organ and is a center of control for the entire 
physical organism. The nervous system, in immediate 
touch with muscles, sensory parts, and vital organs, 
makes all the body parts the direct agents of the brain 
and mind. All kinds of skill are at the same instant 
mental and physical. The basis of all experience and 
knowledge is found in sensory and motor reactions, 
which are carried to the mind by way of the nervous 
system and brain. 

Many of the ailments of children in school are due 
to derangements between the physical and mental 
activities; or, stating it better, the mental ills are the 
direct result of physical conditions. The physical ab- 



CONTRASTS IN CHILD AND IN SOCIETY 227 

normalities and curable defects of children are being 
studied to see if, by their removal, mental faults and 
weaknesses cannot also disappear — and they often 
do. So inseparable are mental and physical effects that 
psychologists are baffled in their effort to discriminate 
between them, and some have become skeptical of any 
real distinction. 

These facts suggest that the theoretical separation 
of the mental activities from the physical in the minds 
of teachers is not based upon any real facts in human 
nature, but is artificial and impractical. At any rate, 
the teacher must work at his problem from both sides, 
and must study the physical aspects of a child's actions 
as carefully and as keenly as the mental. He must 
watch their interactions to see how they combine in 
every case to form a larger unit of action — the whole 
child. 

Teachers have too often taken the partial view of 
human nature, and have even done great injustice to 
children by insisting upon mental responses for which 
there was no physical basis. For example, children 
have been called dunces and dullards because their 
hearing or eyesight was defective or because they were 
too sleepy or exhausted to think. 

The human being is normally a physical-mental 
whole, and it is the best interest of this double whole 
in its unitary action that the educator must conserve. 
Conditions favorable to proper physical activity and 
robust health as a basis for mental growth are in our 
time the subject of widespread interest and experi- 



228 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

ment. At the universities experimental laboratories for 
making physical and mental tests are happily in vogue 
and much time and expense are being applied to this 
problem. The schoolroom is the place, however, where 
all these results must be applied, and where teachers 
should be broad-minded and keenly intelligent to see 
both sides of a very complex and finely adjusted or- 
ganism. 

The fundamental nature of this dualism between the 
physical and mental is demonstrated, first, in the very 
nature of the child, as a combined psycho-physical 
organism; second, in the nature of the school as a 
combination of physical and mental problems; and 
finally, in the structure of society, with its physical 
and economic basis on one side, and its social and cul- 
tural factors on the other. The child is a microcosm in 
which the whole problem of society and of the universe 
is reflected. 

II. HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT 

A somewhat different aspect of the study of child 
nature is suggested by the contrasted words "hered- 
ity" and "environment." It has been often debated 
which of these has the greater influence in determining 
character. A more important question is, How are 
they related to each other? If a child's heredity 
is mainly good, environment or education should 
strengthen and develop its potential forces. If a child 
is unfortunate in his heredity, the problem is, How can 
environment develop his better activities and fortify 



CONTRASTS LN CHILD AND IN SOCIETY 229 

him against weaknesses? Bad tendencies may be al- 
lowed to disappear for lack of opportunity to exercise 
them, and better interests and habits may be encour- 
aged till they get a strong foothold. 

Some educators have taken extreme views regarding 
the formative power of environment in shaping char- 
acter. The tender and susceptible nature of infancy 
and childhood is a strong point in their argument. The 
disposition of children to imitate their companions and 
elders and the readiness with which they take on the 
social temper and spirit of the gang or group to which 
they belong is another powerful shaping influence. 
The standards of judgment and of conduct in the family 
and community, in the church and social life, are also 
powerful agencies. 

On the other hand, heredity has its tale of woe, its 
criminal families, its depressing statistics, and also its 
honorable record of families showing a long line of good 
behavior. It is a great blessing to have had parents and 
grandparents of an old stock known for mental, moral, 
and physical sturdiness. 

The educator is here called upon to take a very 
broad and charitable view of human nature; yes, to 
exhibit a noble confidence in human kind, even in its 
unpromising individuals. The law requires all to go to 
school, and assumes that all are capable of even the 
best results. Experience also seems to show that incor- 
rigibles, so called, when properly employed in school, 
shop and playground, guided and controlled by pru- 
dent and sympathetic teachers, may be saved from 



230 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

evil tendencies, and thus guided through the tumultu- 
ous years of adolescence into steady good behavior in 
maturer years. This happens sometimes even when 
the surroundings of family life are very unpropitious. 

In dealing with children from this point of view 
teachers should acquire the power of judging individ- 
ual capacity and contradictory traits, with their com- 
bination into various types of character. The trouble- 
some cases in particular should be studied and treated 
individually, the confidence of children secured, and 
if possible, grounds discovered in which the teacher 
and children alike may find a basis for encouragement. 

Some have gone so far as to assert that the school 
should so study the heredity and sources of power and 
weakness in children as to discover what calling they 
should prepare for. In this sense the school would be- 
come a sort of testing-out place to discover what chil- 
dren are naturally best fitted for, and they would be 
gradually developed in the direction of their appropri- 
ate callings. This would give the common school a 
preliminary vocational tendency. 

Without going the full length of this proposal, we 
must admit that this disposition to study the children's 
individual peculiarities and special leanings is one of 
the best means of learning how to bring educative in- 
fluences to bear upon them. Human nature is many- 
sided and the resources of educational environment 
are rich and varied, and teachers should be the agents 
for bringing them into proper adjustment. 

The child with his complex physical and mental 



CONTRASTS IN CHILD AND IN SOCIETY 231 

endowment (heredity) is to be adjusted to a very com- 
plex physical and social environment. This happens 
through a long-continued educative process. Parents 
and teachers alike may exert their utmost prudence 
and wisdom in combining the diverse and seemingly 
contradictory elements of the problem. 

III. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIAL WHOLE 

The older definitions of education called for an all- 
round development of the individual — the harmoni- 
ous weighing and balancing of the forces of human 
nature in each person. This was the Greek conception, 
and that of the Germans a century ago. The physical, 
mental, and moral powers of each person were to be 
cultivated, strengthened, and harmonized into the 
perfection of individual character. Each person was 
to be brought to the highest excellence of which he was 
capable. 

This emphasis upon individual character also gives 
scope to marked ability and special talent. Each per- 
son should develop in full measure his strong individ- 
ual traits, his distinctive personality. In this way each 
would also become of the largest service to society. 
His special talents would be fully developed and his 
strong individuality brought out. That society is strong 
which has a full assortment of strong individualities. 
Education should not mold all people into a common 
form. It should encourage individuality. The world 
would be a dull place if all thought and felt and acted 
according to a set pattern. Fashion and convention 



232 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

easily are carried too far. Society needs the stimula- 
tion and criticism of numerous reformers: people who 
are not satisfied with social usage and existing law and 
custom. Conservatism and " standpatism " would bring 
society not merely to a standstill, but to a swift retro- 
grade movement if they should entirely prevail. 

An inquiry into the characteristics of children will 
discover the widest variation of individual talent and 
ability among them. In temperament, in preferences 
for study, in inherited tendencies, they show every- 
where marked special features. The studies of the 
schools also furnish a variety of material suited to this 
wide range of special talents. The conditions and 
resources of the school should be favorable, there- 
fore, to the cultivation of distinct individualities. 
The course of study itself, by the rich abundance and 
variety of materials, is a constant admonisher to the 
teacher not to be narrow and cramped in his attitude 
toward knowledge. 

On the other side, the tendencies of theoretical dis- 
cussion in recent years have been strongly away from 
the individual toward the socializing of education. 
Education has been emphasized as social adjustment, 
the fitting of a child through training to his social and 
industrial environment. Our modern society is growing 
into a very complex organization, and it requires a 
long training to bring a child to the point where he can 
react skillfully and effectively to its many demands. 
Cooperation is now the social watchword, and it is a 
cooperation based on intelligence and on a great va- 



CONTRASTS IN CHILD AND IN SOCIETY 233 

riety of well-developed habits. In social usage, in poli- 
tics, in business life, in travel and amusement, in the 
family, in the club, in State and Church, in sanitary 
and health regulations, in the use of machines and in- 
ventions, in a multitude of other ways, a child must 
become habituated to appropriate social reactions and 
to intelligent cooperation with many sorts of people. 

The socializing principle in education has thus come 
into high repute. It is claimed that the social prin- 
ciple is adequate to determine the whole course of edu- 
cation; that the criterion by which every phase of in- 
struction and discipline can be judged is its social value; 
that proper consideration for the individual is gained 
from the social principle; and that whatever does not 
range itself under social aspects can be omitted. A 
strong argument can be set up to show that education 
can be organized upon a single principle, that of social 
adjustment. 

But there are good reasons for believing that edu- 
cation needs to be measured and judged in its every 
aspect also from the standpoint of the individual. The 
sum of all individualities produces the social whole, 
and what the social whole is, is predetermined by the 
character of the individuals. How strong individualis- 
tic characters are to be developed is one of the most 
serious problems in education. All of our thinking 
on social problems swings back and forth between the 
individual need and the social need, between individ- 
ual rights and the rights of the social whole. 

The individual ego is the center around which new 



234 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

organizations are constantly attempted. The individual 
is also a free, self-governing agent, with power to ap- 
propriate or reject. He is not and should not be a mere 
passive something to be acted on and wholly controlled 
by outside forces. All progress in society must show it- 
self first in individuals, and then work its way slowly 
and often with great opposition into the larger social 
body. The established social order is often a very 
cramping and destructive power exerted against the 
individual and his rights, and the only safety to society 
itself is to find individualities strong and numerous 
enough to take up the battle against social tyranny. 
It is all right to say that every educational agency 
must be judged ultimately from its social implications, 
but it may be said with equal truth that every such 
agency should also be judged from its effect in the 
production of strong, distinctive individualities. 

It may be said also that the leading representatives 
to-day of the social view in education are themselves 
the most pronounced in their individualistic attitude 
and in their sharp, critical opposition to prevailing 
social usage in education. They are not at all inclined 
to adjust themselves to present social conditions and 
demands. 

It has been the fashion for a few years to emphasize 
social aspects in education, and it is also a strong ne- 
cessity of our time of rapid development of complex 
social problems. But the old individualistic view is the 
essential antidote to extremes in social doctrine, and 
the educator must be broad enough to take in both 



CONTRASTS IN CHILD AND IN SOCIETY 235 

sides of this comprehensive situation. How to har- 
monize the individualistic and social necessities is the 
real difficulty. There is no fundamental contradiction, 
which a broader, unpartisan view may not harmonize. 

The tendency toward antagonisms between the in- 
dividualistic and the social view in education throws into 
light a fundamental problem not only in education, but 
in political and social organization for thousands of 
years. Western civilization, as compared with Orien- 
tal, has been strongly individualistic. American history 
has shown thus far an extreme individualism, from 
which it is now trying to recover itself. In the history 
of education since the time of the Greeks there has 
been a swinging back and forth of the pendulum be- 
tween the extremes of individualism and social sub- 
ordination. The Reformation, for example, was a re- 
action against the obliteration of individualities. 

The teacher should possess a clearly defined pur- 
pose to cultivate a right combination of individual and 
social spirit in each child. Some children suffer for lack 
of social cultivation, being willful or selfish. Others 
are lacking in independence and aggressiveness, and 
are too easily submissive. 

A society is strong which has a rich supply of pro- 
nounced individualities and likewise a multitude of 
vigorous social organizations in which these individuals 
cooperate. A personal character is strong in which 
both the individual and social qualities are well devel- 
oped and combined. The function of the school is to 
aid the development of strong personalities, as many of 



236 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

them as possible, checking willfulness on one side, and 
strengthening weaker spirits on the other. It draws the 
more independent characters into harmony with social 
spirit and it arouses the feeble ones to greater inde- 
pendence and initiative. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 

One reason why the science of education commands 
less respect among thoughtful people than may be its 
due is a too wide separation between theory and prac- 
tice. Indeed, they are often referred to as opposites. 
We hear the remark that "Theory says one thing, but 
practice the opposite." Theory, however, should be no 
enemy of practice. If we were about to employ an agri- 
culturist to take charge of and manage a thousand- 
acre farm, we should secure a man who is the best com- 
bination of good theory and good practice. A mere 
theorist without experience we would avoid. An un- 
progressive farmer would not suit us. If we were en- 
gaged in railroad building we should seek a manager 
of construction who is a scientific expert, and at the 
same time experienced on the practical side. In all 
kinds of technical work, theory and practice must 
clasp hands as closely as possible. 

The impractical theorist dwells in a region of ab- 
stractions, and even of dreams, and is neglectful of 
facts and real conditions. The unscientific, so-called 
practical man is apt to be narrow and hidebound, stub- 
bornly holding to an unthinking routine of familiar 
experience. He lacks the wider range of scientific ideas, 
and the progressive views by which he might reinforce 
his practical experience. 



238 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

One might imagine that controversy between theory 
and practice would be out of place. For the best final 
and complete success, each is necessary to the other. 
And yet in educational matters the separation between 
theory and practice often results in sharp contrast be- 
tween the classroom worker and the bookmaking theo- 
rist. The opposing camps even fire their broadsides at 
each other. These antagonisms grow out of the extrav- 
agance, faultiness, and one-sidedness of theories, and 
from an unwillingness to work out the practical results 
of theory with patient endurance. Ever since Rousseau 
put forth his radical ideas of unrestricted freedom for 
children, noisy advocates of extravagant theories have 
not been lacking. For a time enthusiastic zeal for the 
natural sciences and nature-study prevailed, and then 
it dropped off, before satisfactory results had been 
achieved. Recently an equally strong sentiment for 
vocational studies has arisen, and is now at its height. 
The pendulum has swung back and forth too rapidly 
between extreme theories to allow time to work out 
permanent results. Practice should follow theory more 
closely with substantial results. 

We may note several reasons why theories take on 
these extravagant forms : — 

(1) It is easy to elaborate apparently good, or at 
least plausible, theories, while the ability to realize 
them in daily practice falls notoriously behind. It was 
an easy thing twenty years ago to introduce nature- 
study into the school and to defend it as a theory, but 
twenty years of experiment have not yet given us a 



GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 239 

satisfactory course of study or method of procedure 
in nature-lore. This failure to execute theories lends a 
sort of hypocritical quality to much of our educational 
talk and discussion. 

(2) The theorist is often satisfied with his theories. 
He deceives himself with the persuasion that he is doing 
the important brainwork, while the everyday teacher 
can look after the details. This is a case of self-decep- 
tion. For the hardest part of any educational process 
is to make the theory work effectively in the classroom. 
A real thinker can devise more apparently good and 
plausible theories in a day than he can make effective 
in a month, or in a year. In other words, good class 
teaching is itself one of the finest of arts, and in no 
sense a mechanical process for inferior minds. The 
theorist is not occupied enough with the most difficult 
phase of his problem. 

(3) The theorist has a way, too, of becoming enam- 
ored of his own thought creations, and of being in- 
hospitable to those who differ from him in opinion. He 
is too strongly convinced of the truth of his one theory. 
He is like Pygmalion who made a beautiful statue and 
then fell in love with it. 

(4) Again, educational theory has long been a rich 
field for quackery, and until clear and positive tests 
are developed and applied, these quackeries are hard 
to expose. Most educational tests are indecisive and 
uncertain. Shallow results are often showy and de- 
ceptive. Even sound thinkers are not safe in setting 
up theories unless they frequently resort to practical 



240 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

tests to determine the soundness of their reasoning. 
The history of philosophy, that is, of really great think- 
ers and their systems of thought, reveals, over and 
over again, the proneness of the best reasoners to fall 
into error when they rely solely upon the mind's power 
to construct theories and fail to keep their thinking 
close to the corrective facts of experience. 

(5) Again, theories have a way of taking on an ex- 
tremely abstract form, as if the more abstract the bet- 
ter — the more incomprehensible, the wiser. It is an 
amiable weakness of students, when they have had a 
tincture of psychology and philosophy at the univer- 
sity, to imagine themselves to be philosophers. This 
presumption of wisdom usually shapes itself into a 
general theory so abstract that few people can under- 
stand it. A great deal of this kind of wisdom has been 
palmed off on teachers. Their minds have been wearied 
and confused by theories that might be good if one 
could understand and apply them. 

(6) On account of a complete opening-up and pro- 
gressive expansion of American education in recent 
years, with the introduction of many new studies and 
the neglect and criticism of the older curricula, there 
has been a prolific crop of new and more or less extrava- 
gant and conflicting theories. Psychology has been 
shifting its ground to a physiological basis, compelling 
a restatement of fundamental doctrines. Scientific 
experimentation in the laboratory for testing mental 
and physical reactions has delivered to us many new 
and valuable data. Study of children and of their 



GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 241 

heredity has opened up broad fields of investigation. 
The modern industrial and social conditions of life 
have compelled a readjustment to new demands in 
society. As a result of these energetic forces, working 
in upon the school, education has been the football of 
conflicting theories. 

During this period of turmoil the educational think- 
ers have luxuriated in thought creations. They have 
sat in their libraries with the memories of childhood 
about them, elaborating their doctrines as to how 
schools should be organized and courses of study 
planned. It is an entertaining and engrossing specula- 
tion to think out presumptively how these numerous 
millions of oncoming boys and girls are to be managed 
and instructed. As a result, we have been blessed with 
an annual harvest of general treatises on education. 
All this in the natural order is to be expected, and is 
a good thing. Such efforts to reorganize educational 
thought and to get a better grasp of our problem in its 
main aspects are necessary steps in the solution of 
many difficult technical educational problems. Theories 
we are obliged to have, both good and poor, and we 
shall learn somehow to discriminate between them. 

If we had some way of compelling every projector of 
a theory to descend into the arena of practice and put 
his theory to the test in school and classroom, we 
should quickly eliminate weak theories, and we should 
soon get started right. The theorist himself would be 
brought to a better judgment. His ideas would take 
on a more practical and obvious usefulness which the 



242 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

rank and file of teachers would begin to understand. 
Perhaps the wise man would begin to understand better 
his own theories in the light of experience. 

In some cases the theorist has unintentionally stood 
far removed from schoolroom practice, undisturbed 
by the acute and baffling difficulties that beset real 
school- work and the practical reorganization of studies. 
This divorce between theory and practice is most 
clearly manifest in the failure to apply principles to 
the subject-matter of particular studies, the only place 
where theories of instruction can be applied. For ex- 
ample, it will be difficult to find anywhere a full and 
satisfactory treatment of how to teach long-division. 
It is very seldom that a writer on general theory has 
taken up the subject-matter of single important topics 
in a study like arithmetic and has shown in detail, and 
in full, concrete treatment of topics, how to organize 
the material and give it appropriate class treatment. 
It has been impossible to get single illustrations of such 
topics properly worked out as to plan and subject-mat- 
ter. In the United States history, for example, but few 
important topics have been well organized and elabo- 
rated into their details for use in grammar grades. 
This actual working-out of theories upon knowledge 
material in cooperation with children brings a rude, 
rough-and-tumble contact with reality which disturbs 
the delicate sensibilities of a comfortable theorist. The 
selection and presentation of topics in our usual text- 
books is no adequate solution of this problem. 

The disposition to shun this direct schoolroom work 



GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 243 

with children and with concrete subject-matter is an 
intimation of professional weakness. Not only the 
writers of pedagogical books have ceased to teach 
real lessons to children, but superintendents, super- 
visors, professors of pedagogy, principals and directors 
of schools — the great body of what may be called edu- 
cational leaders — do not find time to do this kind of 
fundamental work. Some of them have not taught a 
complete lesson with a class of live children for years. 
As a result we have a separation of the personnel of 
educators into two classes, the non-teachers and the 
teachers. On the one side are theorists who fail to show 
the application of their theories, and on the other, the 
actual teachers who do not understand the theorists, 
and are not guided rationally by fundamental ideas. 
The two classes do not sufficiently cooperate, and nat- 
urally fall into mutual criticism and opposition. 

The actual teachers are much in need of rational 
theory to guide their practice. Teachers are not mak- 
ing the progress they should for lack of strong, controll- 
ing theory. The Committee of Eight in History, for 
example, worked out a superior course of study in his- 
tory. They selected and arranged the central topics 
into a better series than had been offered before. But 
the illustration of topics given and outlined showed 
a course far too elaborate and extensive for children in 
the grades. Forty large topics in a single year furnish 
twice as much material as sixth or eighth grade chil- 
dren can work out with a proper treatment and under- 
standing. These plan-makers had overshot the mark 



244 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

and made too strong demands upon teachers and chil- 
dren. We are in great need to-day of expert thinkers 
and instructors who combine theory with practice, 
whose doctrines are constantly tested by daily applica- 
tion under necessary school conditions. In the new 
subjects like nature-study, manual arts, agriculture, 
domestic science, physical education, health and 
sanitation, we need a strong union of theoretical 
and practical knowledge together with skill in in- 
struction. But all our studies, both old and new, 
are much in need of reorganization and simplifica- 
tion. 

This very problem of the new grouping of knowledge 
materials around controlling centers of thought is the 
most difficult a schoolmaster can undertake. It is also 
the most neglected part, because it requires the theorist 
to deal at close quarters with a lot of details of subject- 
matter which he does not like to bother with. It de- 
mands thorough and intensive knowledge of the sub- 
jects and, at the same time, the use of sound principles 
of psychology and pedagogy as applied to the grouping 
and development of thought materials. It is surprising 
how little the pedagogical specialists are interested in 
this problem which involves the richer detailed knowl- 
edge of school studies. They toss it aside as a mere 
incident. In the old heroic days people tackled their 
problems where the chief difficulty lay. They did not 
shirk the main issue. We need now, if the present 
chasm between theory and practice is to be bridged 
over, a fresh supply of the old heroism of hard workers 



GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 245 

who are not ashamed to deal with the raw materials 
of knowledge and to reorganize them. 

When asked to help young teachers in their effort 
to work up important topics, the theorist gives a few 
general abstract maxims and furnishes a barren out- 
line for the treatment of a topic. This is playing fast 
and loose with a serious problem. Outlines have had 
a great vogue, but such outlines are well-nigh worth- 
less. Any one with a vague knowledge of a topic can 
make what to all appearance purports to be a good out- 
line. I have seen dozens and scores of such outlines 
that are not worth the paper they are written on. They 
are, in fact, misleading — they make a pretense of 
solving a problem without attacking its real difficul- 
ties. They are not genuine organizations of thought 
material. A genuine outline is always based upon a rich 
body of well-digested knowledge arranged according 
to a few central, closely organized topics and develop- 
ing strongly into an important truth. Such organiza- 
tions are the product of long study and reflective sift- 
ing-out of rich thought materials. 

The theorist may have done little or none of this 
kind of fundamental thinking, where he is constantly 
coerced by the nature of his thought materials and 
where his theoretical principles must conform to the 
concrete requirements of stubborn facts, both in chil- 
dren and subject-matter. He who will take the trouble 
to grub down into the root knowledge of studies, and 
will force his principles into close adjustment to these 
tough and refractory knowledge materials, will learn 



246 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

the greatest lesson of all, how to yoke theory and prac- 
tice together. 

The history of education gives frequent demonstra- 
tion of the folly of loose, careless theory unrelated to 
practice. The men who have produced profound effects 
in education have been thinkers and philosophers who 
did not shirk the hard work of schoolmastering. Co- 
menius, Pestalozzi, Basedow, Thomas Arnold, Herbart, 
Horace Mann, and Francis Parker were genuine school- 
masters who rolled up their sleeves, as it were, and 
went to work in the schoolroom. Their life-work and 
struggle in the classroom are studied yet to find out 
how they wrought out and applied their principles to 
real stuff. They pioneered through actual difficulties. 

On the other hand, even the greatest pure theorists, 
such as Plato in his Republic, Rousseau in his fimile, 
and Spencer in his Education, made surprising blunders, 
and half the time of the discussion of these authors 
must be spent in excusing their extravagances and false 
doctrines, while the other half is used in allowing due 
praise to their fruitful ideas. 

Many of the recent books of theory are not suffi- 
ciently enriched with the results of practice. We need 
something more than compilations tossed together 
from a rapid survey of current books and doctrines. 
Education is a profoundly difficult and laborious sub- 
ject to deal with, if the thinker will take the pains to 
subject all his theoretical ideas to the doubly difficult 
test of crude knowledge stuff and of the crude develop- 
ing minds of children. To reduce these stubborn reali- 



GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 247 

ties into a practical harmony is no holiday task. The 
mere book theorist has not grasped the significance of 
this phase of his problem. He is dabbling with his sub- 
ject and is throwing the real burden back upon the 
shoulders of the classroom teacher, who, however, is 
not fully qualified to meet it. 

What classroom teachers need to-day is strong theo- 
retical and practical guidance from real leaders who 
are earnest and thoroughgoing enough to work out 
detailed problems of instruction. Our teachers have 
had an overdose of theory not well related to practice. 
It has been often observed that pedagogical literature 
with few exceptions is dull reading. One reason for 
this is the vague, abstract, and theoretical statement 
of principles. Many good teachers cannot think their 
way across the gap between vague theories and con- 
crete schoolroom practice. Nor is this chiefly the fault 
of the average teacher, but rather of the average theo- 
rist who does not carry his thought far enough, or, 
more likely, lacks the experimental knowledge with 
studies and children to do so. 

The first simple and fundamental test of a good 
schoolmaster, and also of a good theorist, is power to 
illustrate and concrete his ideas. This is sometimes 
lacking in the educational theorist, and it is a deeply 
unfortunate deficiency. Every teacher who reads 
the theorist's books and falls into his abstract way of 
thinking is in so far disqualified from becoming a good 
teacher. The blind leader and his follower thus fall to- 
gether into the ditch. 



248 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

From the point of view of the relation of theory and 
practice, our American education is not sufficiently 
practical. It leaves a wide gap between the two, and 
this gap is a foe to progress, and also a foe to present 
efficiency. Theory has an importance in the world 
just to the extent to which it governs practice; beyond 
that, nothing. 

Every year we have thousands of young teachers 
who are asking to be guided from the land of theory 
into the land of practice. The passage across this bor- 
derland is the most difficult thing in education, and, to 
say the least, the leaders of American education are 
not skillful in inducting young people, by their own 
example, into skillful classroom work. The theorists 
themselves sometimes cannot apply their theories. 
They do not think it necessary in some cases to make 
the attempt. The two things which will qualify a per- 
son for genuine leadership in education are, first, a high 
degree of skill in classroom management and instruc- 
tion, and, second, great ability and success in organiz- 
ing the detailed concrete subject-matter of studies 
so as to have it in readiness for teaching purposes and 
in proper adjustment to children's needs. Without 
these two very difficult attainments the supposed 
leader in education is a figurehead and a pretense. 

Schoolmastering is a fine art and the approach to 
it should be through scientific method. Scientific 
method itself should be the demonstration of the com- 
plete union between theory and practice. American 
teachers cannot be convinced of the real value of scien- 



GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 249 

tific method, unless they see it based on sound theory 
and backed up by successful practice. We still believe 
in the rule of thumb, that is, in our ability to pick up 
right methods here and there in a haphazard way, 
without definite, systematic study of educational prin- 
ciples and practice. The German schoolmaster has more 
faith in scientific method. In preparation for the prac- 
tice of a difficult art he is willing to spend years in the 
careful study of the history and scientific principles of 
his art and their application. Some of the most emi- 
nent teachers in Germany, at the head of great schools, 
are skillful classroom instructors. Teaching-skill in the 
classroom is the fundamental test of the schoolmaster's 
professional standing and efficiency. It is the one 
thing that he can do better than any one else. It is the 
thing he has a right to be proud of as a specialist. It 
is the thing that absorbs his most serious intellectual 
and moral efforts. It is his ambition to be a first-class 
schoolmaster, in power and efficiency, and not merely 
a figurehead at the head of his system. Dr. Otto Fricke, 
at one time head of the great Waisenhaus Schools at 
Halle, was one of the most eminent and scholarly 
schoolmasters in Germany. It was his frequent cus- 
tom to teach a class of forty boys in the presence of his 
principals and subordinates, and then sit down with 
them at a round table to discuss freely his method of 
procedure. 

Americans are supposed to be practical. At least, 
they usually pride themselves on this quality as a na- 
tional trait. In educational matters this is not suffi- 



250 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

ciently true. Many American leaders in education are 
not practical in the main issue. They are not attacking 
their problem in dead earnest at the central point of 
difficulty, namely, the bridging-over of the passage 
from theory to practice. It is not that they fail to theo- 
rize and to think out principles and systems of method, 
but they do fail to follow up the preliminary theorizing 
and planning with a positive campaign in the field of 
concrete studies. They turn over the most difficult 
part of the problem to the thousands of schoolroom 
teachers, half of whom are not well equipped for it. 
Even the better class of more experienced teachers are 
in distressing need of masterly leaders who can get into 
the ranks and show how to grapple with subject-matter 
in a lot of new studies, not yet well organized. The situ- 
ation is pressing, and the demand for real, not titular, 
leaders is great. Here is a place where leaders are 
needed in the front ranks and not with the baggage- 
train. 

Educational theories, as they have been elaborated 
from the minds of profound thinkers and tested by the 
conditions of life in and out of school, are of untold 
value, and profitable in the full, unrestricted sense. 
The landmarks of educational thought, as found in the 
writings of Plato and Quintilian, of Erasmus and 
Comenius, of Locke and Rousseau, of Herbart and 
Froebel, if appreciatively studied, enlarge one's edu- 
cational horizon and give an inspiring idea of the scope 
and importance of education. Even the more recent 
numerous treatises on education are capable of pro- 



GULF BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE 251 

ducing excellent results if we can only turn them into 
direct practical channels. But pedagogy, like theology, 
easily runs into a dry, formal dogmatism. Both have 
a strong tendency to develop an isolated self-suffi- 
ciency, which separates them from life interests and 
soon lays them on the shelf. 

There is considerable danger of educational theory 
becoming a mere theoretical cult, even a pharisaical 
sort of self-righteousness, which not only stands apart 
from life realities, but is out of sympathy with the 
troubles and needs of the real toilers. 

It is difficult to see how we can make much progress 
in reorganizing our course of study — the serious 
problem of our time — until a large number of edu- 
cational thinkers are willing to grapple with subject- 
matter in studies at close quarters. Courses of study 
have been outlived by the hundred and we can go on 
making hundreds more without material improvement. 
The real problem lies lower down in the depths of the 
school studies, where mastery and organization of sub- 
ject-matter are called for. Outside of a few experimen- 
tal schools and among quiet, hard-working grade teach- 
ers, who do not know how to discourse on pedagogy, 
our present schematic plans of outlining courses of 
study are as formal as the old mediaeval dialectic of 
the schoolmen. A close, practical union between edu- 
cational principles and daily practice in classroom work 
is needed. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE CONTROVERSY AS TO SCHOLARSHIP AND A 
SCIENCE OF EDUCATION OR PEDAGOGY 

The teacher who wishes to gain skill and efficiency 
in his work is met by two sets of advisers who are an- 
tagonistic. Each party is well assured of its views as 
correct. On one side are the advocates of scholarship, 
on the other side, of a science of education. Neither 
party, of course, would entirely ignore the claims of the 
other, but one party would give preponderance to 
scholarship, and the other to pedagogical science. 

Complete and systematic knowledge is still regarded 
by many well-educated people, and especially by in- 
structors in higher schools, as the one important need 
of a teacher. Any one who possesses sound scholar- 
ship, good sense, and some natural aptitude for deal- 
ing with children may quickly become a good teacher. 
A thorough, liberal education is the main thing. On 
this assumption the higher schools and colleges and 
universities are yearly turning out thousands of would- 
be teachers who have had little or no special training 
in psychology, pedagogy, or the history of education, 
to say nothing of experimental training in teaching. 

It is hardly possible, in truth, to overestimate the 
value to a teacher of a comprehensive liberal educa- 
tion in history, in literature, in the sciences, in geo- 
graphy, in languages, in mathematics, in music, and 



SCHOLARSHIP AND PEDAGOGY 253 

the fine arts. When broad culture is combined with 
sound scholarship and social cultivation, we have a 
highly superior equipment for the teacher. People 
of this persuasion feel that to substitute anything else 
for scholarship is a mere pretense. Pedagogy and psy- 
chology and child-study may be of some value, but they 
are in no sense the main consideration. The advocates 
of this view are a strong and influential body among 
educators, and they have, besides their own personal 
experience, a historical background upon which to 
strengthen their conviction. 

Opposed to this view stands a second company of 
progressive educators who believe strongly in a science 
of education, in a group of simple, fundamental prin- 
ciples which control the processes of teaching and 
which must be understood by those who attain success 
in teaching. These principles have been organized into 
a system of procedure far more effective than the hap- 
hazard plans of one who has not studied education as 
a science. Psychology and child-study and the his- 
tory of education have been worked over by philo- 
sophical thinkers into a body of educational doctrine 
which furnishes at least the safe beginnings of a science 
of education. All teachers will be strengthened in power 
and resource if they will spend some time in the care- 
ful study of these principles, and in learning, in prac- 
tice schools under experienced critics, to apply them. 

On the other hand, the advocates of scientific method 
claim that the most thorough scholarship is not a suf- 
ficient preparation for teaching. Many excellent schol- 



254 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

ars have completely failed as teachers. Even a student 
of fine scholarship and of much natural aptitude for 
teaching will make many blunders and pass through a 
too long period of apprenticeship to teaching if he has 
not studied the scientific principles of education and 
has had no critical training in teaching. The practice 
of teaching, being very complicated in its processes, 
needs to be regulated by carefully devised plans. The 
waste of time by untrained teachers who presume to 
practice a difficult art without any preparation except 
scholarship is enormous. No good business could be 
conducted effectively on such a basis. 

Presupposing a sound scholarship there are at least 
three lines of practical preparation which the oncom- 
ing teacher needs to reflect upon and to think out to 
a conclusion. First, are the natural mental processes 
explained in our scientific psychology. They are basal 
for all proper study and mental effort. Second, child- 
study which includes the stages of growth through 
which children pass, and the predominant impulses, 
interests, and characteristics shown by children in their 
development. One who ignores these qualities of hu- 
man nature can spend several years in stupid blunder- 
ing to the misfortune of all concerned. Third, is the 
special pedagogy of different school studies. Experi- 
enced teachers who have given their lives to the ardu- 
ous and successful work of teaching find that each study 
has peculiar difficulties and modes of treatment, which 
experience has brought clearly into evidence. These 
need to be understood by the young teachers as a 



SCHOLARSHIP AND PEDAGOGY 255 

means of efficiency and for the avoidance of a long 
train of errors and miscarriages. The history of educa- 
tion gives a fourth line of practical suggestion to 
teachers by setting forth in striking illustration the 
blunders and successes of individual educators in the 
past and the slow evolution of fundamental principles 
in teaching. It is a strong antidote to one-sidedness 
and opinionated doctrines in young students. 

The advocates of a science of education as a practi- 
cal basis for teaching are not opposed to scholarship, 
although they may seem at times to ignore scholarship, 
in their devotion to scientific theories and pedagogy. 
There has been some disposition to criticize and depre- 
cate pedagogical studies as carried on in departments 
of education in the colleges and universities, and in 
normal schools, on the ground of neglect of scholarship. 
It is natural that some faults along this line should 
show themselves, but in such schools it will be found 
that three fourths of the time and often more are de- 
voted to strictly scholarly pursuits, that is, to aca- 
demic studies, and usually in a very thorough and dis- 
ciplinary treatment of those studies. The great success 
that normal-school graduates have had in all parts of 
the country in collegiate and university studies is 
ample proof of this. The colleges and universities are 
pleased to get these products of normal -school training 
because of their studious habits and actual attainments. 
The supercilious criticism that has been directed 
against pedagogical training on this account is prob- 
ably due to narrowness and lack of sympathy of the 






256 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

critics. If the advocates of pedagogical training were 
disposed to return the sharpness of criticism, they 
might suggest that nowhere are improved methods of 
teaching more seriously demanded than among those 
teachers in higher schools who criticize pedagogical 
science. The amount of inefficient teaching in colleges 
and universities has been often acknowledged and 
bewailed by good authorities. 

This controversy between the advocates of scholar- 
ship and of a science of teaching would not deserve 
attention but for the fact that most teachers have a 
strong leaning toward one side or the other. In reality 
good teaching involves both, and a full measure of 
each. The usual knowledge gained in higher and lower 
schools, considered merely from the standpoint of 
knowledge, is entirely inadequate to the needs of a 
good teacher. In preparation for teaching, every study 
ought to be gone over again more thoroughly, its ma- 
terials better organized and mastered, and the concrete 
and illustrative phases extensively elaborated. Every 
teacher should have such a knowledge of his subject 
that he is the master rather than the slave of his text. 
Such masterly knowledge of school studies is unusual 
even in colleges and universities. Fortunately the 
critics are demanding a much higher scholarship than 
they themselves fulfill. The fault of our young college 
graduates who try to teach is that they are not mas- 
ters of their subjects on the scholarship side. They are 
superficial. They do not come up to the mark which 
they themselves set. Notoriously the young gradu- 



SCHOLARSHIP AND PEDAGOGY 257 

ates of colleges and universities entering upon high- 
school work are clumsy teachers. They lack suffi- 
cient scholarship for first-class teaching. After they 
have taught and illustrated the subject several times 
with children, they gain that thoroughness and rich- 
ness of knowledge essential to a teacher. 

But combined with this superior knowledge and di- 
recting its use in teaching, there should be a practical 
insight into the principles of teaching and an appreci- 
ative knowledge of children, of their temper and moods, 
and of their mental habits. It is only gradually that 
most teachers get a clear appreciation of the intellec- 
tual processes and impulsive feelings of children. It is 
not surprising that young teachers should plunge into 
these complicated problems of teaching without much 
plan or foresight. But experienced teachers should 
know better, and should realize that a preliminary 
instruction in the psychology of mental habit and child 
life, under an experienced teacher, would forewarn 
beginners against many blunders and point out the 
chief avenues of success. The greatest of all these diffi- 
culties is not scholarship alone, even of the best kind, 
nor is it the mastery of psychology alone, and of the 
doctrines of teaching based upon it, but rather the 
practical combination of fine scholarship with scienti- 
fic insight. Skill in teaching and educating children is 
a fine art which combines these divergent elements 
into one product known' as social expertness and tact. 
The application of school-acquired knowledge to the 
conditions of life is always an arduous problem. It is 






258 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEOPJES 

no less so in the affairs of teaching. The mere acquisi- 
tion of knowledge by a trained scholar is a relatively 
easy thing. The teacher, on the contrary, is working 
with immature minds which have not yet habituated 
themselves to the processes of learning, but are in the 
making, with all the tumult and resistance incident to 
getting the mind under control. The teacher is working 
at the very smelting process, the point of difficulty 
where new, uncomprehended knowledge meets this 
tumult of the child's mind. In every new lesson he 
has pioneering difficulties to meet. To guide twenty 
children of widely differing capacity so that they keep 
step, as they advance together through a new and diffi- 
cult line of thought, is a bold undertaking. 

There is, therefore, no real ground of controversy. 
The advocates of scholarship are not only justified in 
their demand, but it should be made stronger. They 
are right far beyond what they have claimed. Those 
who call for scientific principles in the educator and 
for skill in the application of these principles to chil- 
dren and to studies are making a very moderate and 
reasonable demand. They could insist more stringently 
upon thorough training in the principles and upon 
skill in the applied art. Thorough knowledge and its 
psychologic process are one. The teacher must some- 
how provide for both these things and then compass 
the still greater task of finding the harmonious unity 
of these two elements. 

Herein lies true economy in educational processes. 



SCHOLARSHIP AND PEDAGOGY 259 

In the common trades the application of scientific 
method has produced notable economies of very re- 
cent date. In education, it is difficult to get at such 
economies, because the processes are more compli- 
cated and elusive. It is probable, however, that the 
waste in uneconomical and bungling methods of teach- 
ing and school management is enormous. They show 
their hurtful effects later in business and in life-work 
of all kinds. In our school training of children, if we 
could apply scientific method to thorough and well- 
organized knowledge in all studies, we should form 
and strengthen those mental habits which contrib- 
ute directly to efficiency in all the common occu- 
pations. 

Poor teaching is more wasteful than poor work in 
industrial pursuits. It is not uncommon to hear the 
statement from experienced and discerning teachers 
that half the time in schoolrooms is wasted. But poor 
teaching is not only wasteful at the moment, it incul- 
cates bad habits that will go on wasting for fifty years 
to come. A science of education, and an art of teach- 
ing based upon it, should get at this waste. The wide 
range of knowledge required for teaching, and the 
complexity and variety of activities which the teacher 
must guide successfully, make a powerful demand for 
an economic organization of his work; first, sound prin- 
ciples upon which to base his action, and second, eco- 
nomic and time-saving devices throughout all the de- 
tails of his work. To teach one subject to one child 



260 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

successfully is a rare achievement. To teach thirty 
children in eight or ten subjects, daily, at the same time 
directing wisely their social activities and moral tend- 
encies, is a thing that requires every aid that previous 
experience and reflection can supply. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THREE PAIRS OF DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 
I. CONSERVATIVES AND PROGRESSIVES 

The opposition between conservatives and progres- 
sives shows itself in education as in politics. The con- 
servatives naturally desire to hold fast the good fea- 
tures of the old education, the things which centuries 
of experience have shown to be valuable. Among those 
things which are supposed to have been approved by 
long experience may be named the following: the old 
classical tradition of the ancient languages; the doctrine 
of formal and mental discipline; the concept of distinct 
mental faculties such as memory, observation, reason- 
ing; the notion of a perfect individual expressed in the 
phrase, "the harmonious evolution of all the human 
faculties"; the thorough mastery of the formal studies, 
reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, and grammar; 
the strict notions of moral responsibility and obedience 
to authority; and finally the textbook method of as- 
signing, learning, and reciting lessons. These are some 
of the good old doctrines and practices which conserv- 
atives hold fast, partly from habit and temperament, 
and partly because they have been tested and approved 
as satisfactory. These adherents of the old ideas and 
practices reject the new theories and methods as fads, 
as extravagances, or as untried fancies of enthusiasts : 



262 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

reform movements in education they consider as one- 
sided and partisan. The reformers set up high expecta- 
tions that are not realized in the event. They come far 
short of bringing the promised returns. The old stand- 
ard methods in education are usually more successful 
than the new, because it takes a long time to get new 
methods into working order. Reforms in education 
are usually disappointing to all concerned. They come 
in waves of fashion and subside while the old fashions 
return. In the last twenty -five years we have had a 
rapid succession of reform movements, such as the 
kindergarten, natural science and nature-study, the 
elective system, physical geography, classical English 
literature, manual training, the Herbartian movement, 
child-study, and more recently, agriculture and voca- 
tional training. None of these propagandas have had 
any such success as their advocates at first expected. 
All of them have left permanent influences that have 
changed to some extent our ideas and practices in the 
schools. 

The conservatives perform one very important serv- 
ice, — they keep up the continuity of our develop- 
ment, they hold us to our moorings so that we do not 
lose our connections with the past. Education must be 
deeply historical and traditional. Foremost of all, edu- 
cation must hand down traditional culture, the best 
ideas and spiritual treasures that a long historical past 
has accumulated and preserved. This traditional cul- 
ture constitutes the main body of our courses of study. 
In this sense education, in its very nature, is conserv- 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 263 

ative and preservative. It has immense faith in the 
past, and it discredits the brand-new enthusiasms of 
the present. 

But in our day educational reformers have had their 
inning, and have introduced a whole series of radical 
changes. The last thirty years have seen, in the course 
of study and in modes of teaching, the most remark- 
able reforms that have been known in many gen- 
erations. In all kinds of schools, high and low, im- 
portant new studies have been introduced and the 
course of study reorganized. The reformers claim that 
these changes are a necessary adjustment to the great 
revolutions that have taken place in industrial and 
social life and in scientific progress generally. The re- 
form movement, which began with Comenius three 
hundred years ago, has been gaining in power and 
influence through all the years, but its effects have 
reached a climax in our time that has almost upset 
some of the fundamental doctrines that have swayed 
education for centuries. 

It is well to consider briefly what ideas have impelled 
the reformers to these radical changes. The feeling 
was very marked among progressive educators that our 
old classical course of study was too subservient to a 
long distant past and blind to the strong and power- 
fully developing needs of a new economic and social 
status, where the natural sciences, modern languages, 
the history and politics of the present, must control. 
Childhood itself in all its phases has been sympathetic- 
ally, and to some degree scientifically, studied, so as to 



264 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

bring the other half of the educational problem more 
clearly to our conscious recognition. The kindergarten, 
the child-study movement, the ideas of child freedom, 
and the gentler, more parental, treatment of children, 
the doctrines of interest and apperception, the juvenile 
court, the care of defectives, abnormal cases and health 
conditions, playgrounds and physical training, are 
clear symptoms of this greater regard for childhood. 

The demand for social and industrial adjustment to 
life surroundings has been a marked feature of recent 
reforms. American history and civics, commercial 
and industrial geography, lessons in applied science, 
health, sanitation, etc., work in shops, gardens, and 
agriculture, commercial and business studies in the 
high school, domestic science and special vocational 
training, are unmistakable signs that people are de- 
manding of the schools useful knowledge and practical 
skill. 

At the same time there has been a decided revival of 
interest in modern literature and idealism, in fine art 
and music, in artistic design in the arts and crafts, in 
home and school decoration. The use of the old myths 
and stories of folklore, of tales of chivalry and modern 
classics, mixed with Greek and Norse legends, are signs 
that we have been searching among the treasures of all 
national literatures for the best educative thought- 
material that the fruitful imagination of poets and 
artists has produced. It is accordingly claimed by the 
reformers that there has been an astonishing enrich- 
ment of the real experience and vitalizing thought 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 265 

needed to stimulate the mental and physical powers of 
children. The course of study has been lifted out of its 
old formalities, its dry and fruitless drills, its uninspir- 
ing routine. On the one side, the new course of study 
is intensely utilitarian, dealing with industries, with 
games and health exercises, with shops and kitchens, 
with farms and factories; on the other side, it is idealis- 
tic and fanciful, dealing with all possible poetical and 
imaginative ideas and situations. It is cultural, moral, 
and intellectual; but it is also physical, industrial, 
materialistic. 

But these reforms have come on so rapidly and have 
run into and succeeded one another in such a bewilder- 
ing chaos of contradictory demands, that nobody has 
been able to keep up practically with the theoretical 
advances. It has been as yet impossible to make even 
the good ideas involved in these sweeping reform move- 
ments strong realities in school and classroom. The 
problem is far more difficult than the mere outside ob- 
server can imagine. Actual educational reform moves 
very slowly. The progressives have introduced enough 
important reform movements, during the last thirty 
years, to keep us and our successors busy for the next 
hundred years in bringing them into full practical oper- 
ation. The thing to do now is to take stock, survey the 
whole situation, sift out the leading ideas, organize all 
these forces into a working plan, and get industriously 
to work to realize upon our mixed accumulation of 
ideas and materials. 

What attitude should we as teachers take toward 



266 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

conservatives and progressives in education? Our 
present course of study is a pretty fair mixture or com- 
posite of these contending influences. Our methods of 
teaching and governing have also been changing and 
shifting under the pressure of these forces. The average 
teacher at present is upon a somewhat tempestuous 
sea, and must be driven hither and thither by the 
force of the waves. He needs to ballast his educational 
craft with sound doctrines derived from the reflective 
study of the important conservative and progressive 
thinkers. He must weigh out and test the relative val- 
ues of more or less conflicting theories. 

It is not safe to throw one's self unreservedly into 
the hands either of the reformers or conservatives. 
The inevitable result will be a compromise or readjust- 
ment between the two, and the best thing the teacher 
can do is to take in as well as possible the whole situa- 
tion on both sides, and to find a balanced relation be- 
tween conservative and progressive principles. On the 
one side it is foolish to assume that hundreds of years of 
earnest, laborious efforts by the ablest thinkers and 
schoolmasters have not resulted in the most valuable 
principles and practices in education. Men like Sturm, 
Ascham, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Arnold 
have not labored in vain. 

On the other side, progressive theories of education 
which spring from fundamental changes in the organ- 
ization of society, and from deep psychological and 
social research, are not to be ignored. It is the reflective 
study of both sides of educational movements, the 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 267 

conservative and the progressive, that will put the 
teacher in position to face the problems of the present 
and to strike a well-balanced judgment in controver- 
sies. 

Unless a large number of teachers among us become 
imbued with the best conservative and progressive 
principles, so as to hold them in balance, education will 
swing more or less violently from one extreme to an- 
other, and a steady evolution into better procedures in 
schools will be hindered. The characteristic of the 
teacher should be that large-mindedness which sees 
both sides of a problem and forestalls controversy. It 
does not mean feebleness of thought or lack of convic- 
tion. 

In fact, conservatives stand as the protectors of a 
most valuable treasure of educational thought and 
experience. Progressives likewise are inspired with 
ideas of salutary reform and improvement in educa- 
tion. The real teacher should maintain an open and 
judicial mind for both sides and a strong enthusiasm 
for combining these merits into a larger whole. 

II. SECULAR VERSUS MORAL EDUCATION 

The conviction has been often expressed that our 
education is secular, on the one hand, and on the other, 
that it lacks the higher moral sanction. The complaint 
is periodically heard that public-school education has 
failed in improving the morals of the people : that there 
is, in spite of increasing intelligence, a serious lack of 
moral training; and that our whole system of education 



268 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

needs to be reorganized on a sounder ethical basis. On 
this consideration there seems to be a practical contra- 
diction between moral and secular education. 

Now it will be admitted that moral training and 
moral character are necessary and fundamental in any 
system of education, and if this basal requirement is 
neglected, the whole structure is weak as to its most 
essential quality. There should be no weakness nor 
compromise in the demand for fundamental morality 
as the basal principle of all popular education. 

Various proposals have been made toward strength- 
ening the moral tone and moral influence of schools and 
teachers. Specific moral lessons have been advocated. 
The reading of the Bible in schools, a more definitely 
conscious moral use of biographies, of literary classics 
and of history topics having a rich moral content, an 
improvement in the moral standards of teachers, and 
an effort to use the social government and discipline of 
the schools as a means of teaching and enforcing moral 
obligations — all these and other special suggestions 
have been offered as means of moral uplift and rein- 
forcement. In fact, there has been in the minds of 
teachers and of other people interested in education a 
separation between moral and intellectual training. 

The disciplinary studies like algebra, geometry, and 
the languages have been chiefly regarded as mental 
drills, as whetstones to the intellect. The richer thought 
studies, such as geography, natural science, and his- 
tory, have been thought of and treated chiefly as 
informational. The whole point of view and method of 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 269 

teaching these subjects has emphasized this non-moral 
attitude. 

On the other hand, we have thought of moral educa- 
tion as a separate thing, consisting of moral lectures, 
the learning of moral precepts, the study of the Bible; 
in short, the institution of some separate and special- 
ized forms of moral training. The intellect and the 
moral sensibilities have been cut apart as if belonging 
to different realms. Thus an artificial contrariety has 
been established between the two forms of culture. 

But human experience and knowledge are not by 
nature cut up into these opposed elements. The mind 
works as a whole, and not in fragments or in sections. 
We have no quarrel with the use of studies for mental 
discipline, but we do object to the degrading of great 
moral studies like literature, history, and social science 
to mere hack-work in mental drill. When we learn to 
treat these great studies with an eye single to their 
fundamental ideas, that is, to get at their real content 
and meaning, we shall have no just complaint that 
moral education is neglected on that side. Our narrow 
and one-sided use of studies is responsible for this re- 
sult. Let us observe that the secular character of our 
studies is, in no proper sense, opposed to moral culture, 
or even responsible for moral deficiencies in education. 

Our whole course of study is rapidly becoming fun- 
damentally racial and social, i.e., moral. When we say 
that the underlying purpose of education is to socialize 
as well as to individualize the child, we are but ex- 
pressing in a different way the controlling moral pur- 



270 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

pose of the school. No single study or group of studies 
can give a child his proper moral bent and training, 
because all education in every study and in every phase 
of discipline is moral. To be of real value all studies are 
focused upon the moral aim, or, better, are inherently 
involved in the moral movement. Moral education is 
too important to be delegated to any one study or one 
set of influences. It must permeate the whole; it must 
be omnipresent; it must dominate all phases of instruc- 
tion and of school management. This is no mere verbal 
sentiment. 

Slowly the higher values are gaining recognition in 
education, and the highest values are moral. The mod- 
ern enrichment of the course of study in history and 
biography, in commercial and economic geography, in 
literature and reading, in the social and practical uses 
of science, in social games and amusements, and in the 
industrial arts, all have a distinctive moral emphasis as 
dealing with the social and moral needs in the organ- 
ization of society. 

We have been too much inclined to think that morals 
must be taught as a separate subject like arithmetic or 
grammar. But morality should spring out of all sub- 
jects and out of all the social life and conduct of the 
school. Important ideas are rapidly becoming the 
organizing centers of school studies. They are but few 
in number and possess far-reaching organizing influ- 
ence. Foremost among these, and deeply embedded in 
history, literature, and social science and school disci- 
pline, are the moral ideals of our race and of present 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 271 

society. What we need to do is to keep clearly in mind 
the essential purpose of the school to develop sound 
character, and then handle all school subjects in that 
natural relation to life and its duties which springs 
directly from the nature of these studies and their 
bearing on life problems. Morality thus is genuine and 
essential and universal. 

In this respect all secular studies become moral in 
tone and purpose, because they are the embodiment of 
moral life principles in the essential organization of 
studies as related to men's lives and enterprises in 
society. 

There are, indeed, some studies, like history, litera- 
ture, and economics, and economic geography, which 
are so full of human life and interest that the moral 
elements are conspicuous, while other studies, like 
mathematics and science in their purely academic 
treatment, are non-moral, but in their relation to the 
aim of education and social values they become vitally 
related to human welfare. 

III. GENERAL TRAINING AND VOCATION 

Another contrast that appears in our educational 
theory and discussion is that between general and 
special training, between what we call a broad, liberal 
culture on the one side, and special or vocational train- 
ing on the other. 

It has been a strong feeling of the schoolmaster that 
the studies and discipline of the common school are 
selected and designed so as to give all children that 



272 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORD3S 

liberal equipment of knowledge and those habits of 
work and conduct which will broadly fit them for any 
station in life. For the general purposes of living and 
for easy adjustment to the social order, every child 
needs history, science, geography, literature, music, 
mathematics, the arts, and proper behavior. A long 
period of schooling is required, from six to fourteen, 
and, in some cases, much longer, to give a child this 
varied equipment for life problems and duties. As 
society grows more complex in its structure and more 
varied in its demands upon the individual, it requires 
a still longer time to secure these common and universal 
accomplishments. The widening-out of the course of 
study in several new directions is the expression of these 
expanding demands that the world is making upon 
young people as they leave the school. 

Business men, on the other side, and those who like 
to be called practical educators, have always claimed 
that school studies should prepare more directly for 
business life, and have even gone so far as to say that 
the grammar school should prepare for vocational pur- 
suits, that is, should cultivate specialized skill in cer- 
tain trades and industries. Just at the present time 
this demand is very strong and is gaining much popular 
acclaim and support. This brings on a certain conflict 
between those who favor a broad general education, 
common to all, without regard to future calling, and 
those who advocate special vocational training. 

It may be said, without much fear of contradiction, 
that both these contrasted forms of training are neces- 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 273 

sary for every human being who fills his proper place as 
an adult in society. He must be educated up to the 
point where he can respond intelligently and promptly 
to all the general requirements of a citizen in the mani- 
fold relations to society at large. He must also become 
an expert in some vocational line of work, where a high 
degree of skill and proficiency is demanded. There can 
be no doubt as to the necessity for this double educa- 
tional proficiency in each person. It is also true that, if 
both these results are to be attained in the common 
school, the field of its important activities must be 
greatly enlarged; for the general studies of the school, 
already incorporated into the course, are more exten- 
sive than we can master under present conditions in the 
time given. 

Vocational training, again, must be judged according 
to its proper relation to children. It may be said that in 
all probability no child before the age of fourteen is 
qualified physically and mentally to take on the tech- 
nical skill required by adults in a vocation. His physi- 
cal abilities are not equal to that kind of skill without a 
forcing of the process upon those who are immature. 
The beginnings of vocational training in skilled trades 
in all nations are not usually made before the age of 
fifteen or sixteen. 

A study of the children's physical limitations and 
undeveloped physical powers will help to settle this 
question right. Until the children are mature enough 
to take on this high degree of technical skill required 
in the trades, we can afford to let special vocational 



274 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

training alone. Two good reasons, therefore, can be 
assigned for not introducing vocational training below 
the high school: first, children are too immature in 
their physical and mental powers; second, this period, 
for the welfare both of the child and of society, should 
be devoted to the purposes of general education, pre- 
liminary to specialization in trades. It is now generally 
conceded that the high-school period from fourteen 
to eighteen, and even till twenty, is the appropriate 
time for mastering skilled vocations. The training 
for the higher professions in the universities comes 
later still. Our whole school system needs greatly to be 
strengthened at this high-school period. Trade schools, 
commercial departments in high schools, and continu- 
ation schools should be made numerous and strong in 
all our communities to meet this need. The present 
agitation in favor of vocational schools for young peo- 
ple between the ages of sixteen and twenty, is entirely 
justified. 

It may also be said that manual training or indus- 
trial arts in intermediate and grammar grades should 
give introductory courses in woodwork, textiles, print- 
ing and bookbinding, and clay-modeling, which will 
furnish the children with suitable exercises in working 
with tools and materials. These school arts will culti- 
vate the constructive powers and aptitudes in children 
without overstrain, and gradually develop them from 
crude and imperfect efforts to some degree of skill in 
designing and making a considerable variety of objects. 
The training and skill thus acquired will be profitable 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 275 

as a preparation for skilled trades when the time comes, 
and will also give all children an exercise and aptitude 
for working in various materials that will be useful to 
every person in the future. 

There seems, therefore, to be a reasonable and prac- 
tical solution of this conflict between general and voca- 
tional training. Both are important, and the transition 
from general education to vocation must be adjusted to 
the powers of children and to the needs of society in 
its permanent interests. It is an adjustment, however, 
which takes place mainly in the high-school period. 
The industrial arts in the elementary and grammar 
schools are primarily an essential part of that general 
training which fits for citizenship and only incidentally 
a preliminary to the training for vocational employ- 
ments. 

Teachers must take a broad, longitudinal survey of 
the whole course of school training to get a full per- 
spective of this problem. What seems to many prac- 
tical people a discord between vocational studies (those 
preparing directly for a calling) and our present com- 
mon-school course is at bottom no discord at all. The 
better trained children are in arithmetic, history, and 
reading the quicker they will master their later voca- 
tional studies, and the larger their opportunity through- 
out life. 

The present movement toward vocational training 
is more than justified by the fact that thousands of 
young persons between the ages of fourteen and twenty 
are not now provided with school opportunities for 



276 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORIES 

learning a trade or any kind of specialized skill in a life- 
calling. Many young people in their teens are idle a 
good share of the time, or they shift about from one 
thing to another without becoming expert and reliable 
in any one pursuit. At the age of twenty they are not 
much better qualified for a lifework than they were at 
fifteen, and in addition they may have fallen into bad 
habits. 

Our high schools supply extended secondary train- 
ing, including commercial and domestic-science 
courses, but these fail to meet the needs of large num- 
bers of young people who must be earning a living and 
at the same time are preparing for a permanent liveli- 
hood. We are in great need of a well-organized, fully 
equipped system of secondary schools for boys and 
girls between fourteen and twenty that will train these 
young people into efficiency and skill in a great variety 
of common callings ; not merely in the long established 
trades, such as tailoring, bricklaying, etc., but in 
butchering, in baking, in barbering, in shopkeeping, in 
laundering, in gardening, and in a hundred other call- 
ings. 

Our industrial society has reached the point where it 
feels sharply the need for trained and skillful workmen 
in all these common pursuits. Otherwise there is enor- 
mous waste in every line of service and production. 
The young people, also, for their own success and hap- 
piness in life, should become expert workmen or pro- 
ducers in some permanent calling by the time they are 
twenty years of age. Upon the vocational schools must 



DUAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 277 

rest the responsibility for this training in a great vari- 
ety of callings. 

Even in vocational schools it has been customary to 
carry along some lines of general-culture study parallel 
with vocational work, such as English, history, eco- 
nomics, composition, and arithmetic. Our high schools 
furnish some courses which are largely industrial and 
vocational and at the same time other courses which 
are academic and broadly cultural. All along the line, 
from the end of the grammar course on, students are 
found passing over from general-culture courses into 
special or vocational courses. There is, therefore, no 
exact line of separation, at present, between general 
and vocational courses of study. There is, however, no 
basal conflict between cultural and vocational studies. 
Every child should have a full share of each, as much as 
his circumstances and abilities will permit. 



CHAPTER XIV 

CONCLUSIONS 

In the discussions of the preceding chapters we have 
found dualisms which tend to grow into practical con- 
tradictions in the chief phases of educational effort. 
The basis for these contradictions lies in human na- 
ture; that is, in the conflicting forces found in child and 
adult, and in society as organized. The necessary sub- 
jects of study themselves show also the elements out of 
which conflicts spring. 

In nearly every one of these problems we have ob- 
served a marked tendency of teachers to fall into dis- 
pute and controversy and to break up into opposing 
parties. This tendency toward partisanship and con- 
flict is also a marked feature of educational history 
extending through centuries. Men have wrangled over 
these dualisms throughout long periods, and the per- 
sistence with which these controversies have been car- 
ried on is proof of their fundamental difficulty and real 
dual character. 

The discussion of the conflicts or oppositions given 
in the preceding chapters seems to indicate that, in 
nearly every case, there is no cause for lasting contro- 
versy or contradiction. At least, there is no irreconcil- 
able conflict. The principles involved in each case are 
complementary, not antagonistic. A more complete 
and fair-minded study of each problem, on both 



CONCLUSIONS 279 

sides, reveals a larger unity which incorporates both 
views. 

If our interpretation of these problems is approxi- 
mately true, it throws much light upon the teacher's 
perplexities and shows a method for solving them. The 
most difficult problems of instruction and of school 
management seem to center in these dualisms. If we 
can find a way to interpret them wisely and to recon- 
cile them, we shall get the teacher started right and 
save him endless waste and conflict. 

The attitude of the teacher toward these dualistic 
problems will show his narrowness or his breadth and 
balance, and determine his qualification for educational 
responsibility. On this basis the qualities of a superior 
teacher may be stated as follows : — 

1. Large-mindedness in comprehending adequately 
both sides of a dual problem. This is more than mere 
tolerance, more than a mere spirit of compromise. It 
implies industrious and patient study, the clear, intelli- 
gent survey of an entire situation on both sides as to its 
facts and principles. 

2. Judicial-mindedness in measuring values and in 
finding the proper balance and harmony between op- 
posing tendencies. Patience and suspended judgment 
are often needed in measuring up and balancing ac- 
counts in a complex situation. 

3. Open-mindedness and lack of prejudice, where 
one is naturally inclined to take sides in a controversy, 
also self-restraint and self-control are required. 

4. In the schoolroom where principles are put in 



280 EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS AND THEORffiS 

practice, the teacher must show marked versatility 
and quickness in shifting from one point of view to the 
other, in springing back and forth between extremes. 
This rapid movement of the mind back and forth is 
often the means of adjustment and harmony between 
opposites. This flexibility of temper is a quality not 
easily attained, because it is more easy and natural to 
dwell in one sphere of thought or feeling and to neglect 
or ignore its complementary mental state. Diplomatic 
shiftiness may express this quality in a practical way. 
We may sum the matter up in this way : The marked 
traits of the teacher should be breadth and variety of 
usable experience, an open and receptive mind for all 
phases of human thought and feeling, and an interest 
in all kinds of knowledge. The teacher in the common 
school specializes in universal qualities, and not in any 
particular kind of knowledge. The dualisms which we 
have discussed lie in the field of human experience 
common to all. They express universal tendencies in 
human nature and in society. The common school is 
expected to give the training which fits for this com- 
mon life of all. In adjusting himself to his surroundings 
in home and society, in work and play, the child will 
meet all these contradictions. They are a part of the 
social order in which he lives. The teacher, who should 
be sufficiently broad-minded and diplomatic to har- 
monize these opposing tendencies in education, would 
be the greatest peacemaker in the world. The peace- 
maker is the one who prevents needless conflict, who 
encourages the spirit of friendliness, and brings people 



CONCLUSIONS 281 

to the superior standpoint, where they can appreciate 
the larger union and harmony of rival or conflicting 
forces. If the teacher, by his greater breadth and tact, 
can get the stronger and better forces of society to work 
together, he can present a much bolder front to the 
evils in society. 

The above-mentioned qualities in the teacher may 
not be easy of attainment. There is, however, oppor- 
tunity for their exercise every day and hour in school- 
rooms. They represent the higher phase of those uni- 
versal necessities for which the school stands. 

The dualisms which we have described and for which 
we have attempted to suggest a solution are found to 
underlie our basal problems in school government, in 
all phases of class instruction, in the general theories of 
psychology and pedagogy, in the subject-matter of 
school studies, in child nature itself, and in the social 
and political organization of society. The history of 
education is a series of object lessons in the controver- 
sies which have sprung out of these dualisms. 

A science of education should balance up and com- 
bine these opposing tendencies, removing all unneces- 
sary causes of friction, and should make plain to 
teachers the points where they ought to broaden and 
deepen their knowledge of principles, so as to grasp the 
larger unity of educational doctrine. 



INDEX 



Abstract, the, and the concrete, 
closely linked, 162, 163, 167; 
textbooks, etc., have generally 
begun with, 164; and the con- 
crete, the proper combination 
of, 170-74; examples of a prop- 
er balance between, 176-81. 

Abstract, treatment of top ; c, and 
concrete, illustrated, 168-70; 
modes of teaching, illustrations 
of, 174, 175. 

Alexander the Great, 201. 

Algebra, 75, 76, 163, 268. 

Antithetical elements in school 
studies, 213-22. 

Aristotle, 165, 201. 

Arithmetic, two opposing meth- 
ods of presenting, 4; develop- 
ment of topics in, 64; con- 
structive thought required in 
problems of, 75, 76; in part, is 
dictation, 77; continuity in, 
114; interesting to children, if 
rightly taught, 121; reverenced 
as hard subject, 123; important 
things in, 147, 148; things of 
secondary importance in, 150; 
concrete and abstract in, 166; 
formalism in, 193; cases of low 
standards in phraseology of, 
194; and the theorist, 242; 
every child needs, 272. 

Arnold, Thomas, 28, 246. 

Artistic, the, and the practical, 
contrast between, 218. 

Arts and crafts, 218, 274. 

Ascham, Roger, 201. 

Authority, 23. 

Basedow, J. B., 246. 
Batavia plan, the, 202. 
Biography, 44, 134, 135. 
Books on education, 246, 247, 250. 
Burgoyne's Campaign, topic, dis- 
cussion of, 95-101. 



Chemistry, 76. 

Children, require freedom, 13; 
impulsive and unregulated, 18; 
reaction of, to teacher, 27; and 
teacher, dualism in contact be- 
tween, 28, 29; conduct of, eas- 
ily misjudged, 31, 32 ; natu- 
rally associate themselves into 
groups, 38; need guidance and 
help, 103-05; argument that 
they are helped too much, 105 
-08; permissible and effective 
ways of helping, 110-16; wrong 
ways of helping, 116-20; de- 
velop through crude effort to- 
ward accuracy, 152; up to age 
of sixteen should have wide va- 
riety of experiences of motor 
type, 154; standards in moral 
education of, 155, 156; should 
not be prematurely hurried in- 
to skilled arts, 158; examples 
of crudeness and of gradually 
developing skill in, 159, 160; 
contrasts in, and in society, 
223-36; vary widely in individ- 
ual ability, 232. 

Child-study, 33, 262-64. 

Class and individual instruction, 
the advantages of each, 196- 
205; in German schools, 200, 
208; devices to harmonize, 205 
-08; summary of discussion on, 
209. 

Classical course, 261, 263. 

Comenius, J. A., 246, 250. 

Comparisons, desirable in treat- 
ment of large topics, 57-60. 

Composition, 113. 

Concepts and percepts, 162, 163. 

Concrete, the, and the abstract, 
closely linked, 162, 163, 167; 
demand for, in teaching, 165; 
can be overdone, 166; and the 
abstract, the proper combina- 



284 



INDEX 



tion of, 170-74; examples of 
excessive emphasis upon, 175, 
176; and the abstract, examples 
of a proper balance between, 
176-84. 

Concrete, treatment of topic, and 
abstract, illustrated, 168-70. 

Conduct, 155. 

Conservatives and progressives, 
261-67. 

Content and form, 184-95. 

Contradictions, in family and 
home education, Richter quot- 
ed on, 3; in practical education, 
examples of, 4, 5; in moral ed- 
ucation, 5; in vocational train- 
ing, 5; in various features of 
education, 5, 6; in views of 
writers on education, 6; funda- 
mental principles of education 
obscured by, 7. See Dualisms. 

Contrasts in child and in society, 
223-36; the child physical and 
mental, 223-28; heredity and 
environment, 228-31; the indi- 
vidual and the social whole, 
231-36. See Contradictions, 
Dualisms. 

Controversy, as regards methods 
of teaching and matters of 
school discipline, 3-6; obscures 
principles of pedagogical sci- 
ence, 6, 7; demoralizing to 
teachers, 7; valuable results to 
be expected from, 8, 9; recon- 
ciliation in, to be attempted, 9, 
10; a few points of, 10, 11. 

Cooperation, 232, 233. 

Criticism in school work, 25-27. 

Cross lines in thinking, 48-52; 
necessary to sound thinking, 
55, 60. 

Crudeness, and perfection, in 
work, 151; examples of, in chil- 
dren, 159, 160. 

Debate, 196, 197. 

Decisiveness in school manage- 
ment, 20-23. 

Details, unimportant, not to be 
dwelt upon, 140-43. 



Dictation, 75-101 ; the arguments 
for, 80, 81; the arguments 
against, 81, 82; discussion of 
Burgoyne's campaign, 95-101. 

Dignity in the teacher, 23-25. 

Discipline, of will, 122-26, 128; 
of life, 126. See School man- 
agement. 

Discussions, 197. 

Dramatization, 175, 197. 

Drawing, 149, 161, 218. 

Drills, 143, 166, 175, 187, 190- 
98, 207. 

Dualisms, in management of 
children in school, 12; obedi- 
ence and freedom, 12-20; de- 
cisiveness and gentleness, 20- 
23; reserve and spontaneity, 
23-25; criticism and encour- 
agement, 25-27; arising from 
contact between teacher and 
children, 28-36; the individual 
and the social whole, 36-39, 
231-36; the teacher as law- 
maker, judge, and executive 
officer, 39-41; between main 
line of thought and cross lines, 
48, 54, 60; dictation and inde- 
pendent thought, 75-101; help 
and self-help, 102-20; interest 
and effort, 120-30; thorough- 
ness and artificiality, 138-50; 
perfection and crudeness, 151- 
61; concrete and abstract, 162- 
84; form and content, 184-95; 
class and individual instruc- 
tion, 196-210; in school stud- 
ies, 213-22; physical and men- 
tal child, 223-28; heredity and 
environment, 228-31; theory 
and practice, 237-51; scholar- 
ship and science of education, 
252-60; conservatives and pro- 
gressives, 261-67; secular and 
moral education, 267-71; gen- 
eral training and vocation, 271 
-77; are not irreconcilable, 278. 
See Contradictions. 

Education, family and home, 
contradictions in, Richter 



INDEX 



285 



quoted on, 3; practical, ex- 
amples of contradictions in, 4, 
5; variety of views among 
writers on, 6; science of, ob- 
scured by controversies, 7; fun- 
damental issues in, look in op- 
posite directions, 9; defined as 
all-round development of the 
individual, 231, 232; empha- 
sized as social adjustment, 232, 
233; should combine the indi- 
vidual and the social points of 
view, 233-36; theories rife in, 
238-43; American, not suffi- 
ciently practical, 248-50; leader 
in, qualifications of, 248; real 
leaders in, needed, 250; science 
of, and scholarship, contro- 
versy as to, 252-60; opposition 
between conservatives and 
progressives in, 261-67; secular 
versus moral, 267-71. 

Educational writers, abstractness 
of, 175. 

Effort, and interest, 120-30; illus- 
trations showing the need of 
strenuous and painful, 131-33. 

Elective system, 6, 203, 262. 

Elizabeth, Princess, 201. 

Emulation, 196, 198. 

Encouragement, and criticism, to 
be combined, 25-27; value of, 
112. 

Energv of will of teacher, 30, 31. 

English, correct, 188, 190, 194, 
195. 

Environment and heredity, 228- 
31. 

Erasmus, 250. 

Erie Canal, topic, treatment of, 
66-74. 

Excellence, standards of, 138-61. 

Fairv and hero tales, 120, 121, 

133, 134, 213. 
Feelings, the, 124, 125. 
Feltre, Vittorino da, as a teacher, 

46. 
Fenelon, Frangois, as a teacher, 

44, 45, 201. 
Form and content, 184-95; cases 



of marked tendency toward 
formalism, 193, 194.* 

Freedom, and obedience, in 
school management, 12-20; of 
thought, in school manage- 
ment, 78. 

Fricke, Dr. Otto, 249. 

Froebel, F. W. A., 250. 

Games, school, 197. 

Garfield, J. A., 28. 

General and vocational training, 
271-77. 

General notions, and particular, 
162; at basis of topics, should 
be brought out, 170, 171. 

Generalization, 167. 

Gentleness in school manage- 
ment, 20-23. 

Geography, methods of teaching, 
5; development of topics in, 63; 
problem-setting in, 83, 90; 
continuity in, 114; many top- 
ics in, interesting to children, 
121; given in interesting way, 
135; important things in, 148; 
things of secondary impor- 
tance in, 149, 150; formalism in, 
193; standards in, 194; physi- 
cal, 262; chiefly informational, 
268; every child needs, 272. 

Geometry, 268. 

George Junior Republic, the, 14. 

German schools, social principle 
emphasized in, 200; system in 
Mannheim of division of chil- 
dren into classes, 208; teachers 
in, have faith in scientific 
method, 249. 

Government, a ticklish experi- 
ment, 17; main purpose of, 23. 

Governments, practice of free- 
dom under law, a need of, 19, 
20. 

Grammar, development of top- 
ics in, 63; is, in part, dictation, 
77 ; discussion of, as a study, in 
school, 115; interesting to chil- 
dren, if rightly taught, 121; 
reverenced as hard subject, 
123; important things in, 148; 



286 



INDEX 



things of secondary importance 

in, 150; an abstract study, 163. 

Groups, social, in school, 37, 38. 

Help and self-help, 102-10; per- 
missible and effective ways of 
helping children, 110-16;wrong 
ways of helping children, 116- 
20. 

Herbart, J. F., 6, 121, 201, 246, 
250. 

Herbartian movement, the, 262. 

Heredity and environment, 228- 
31. 

Hero and fairy tales, 120, 121, 

133, 134, 213. 

Heroic qualities in teacher, 28. 

High-school period, vocational 
training in, 274-76. 

History, contrasts in methods of 
teaching, 4, 5; development of 
topics in, 63; is, in part, dicta- 
tion, 77; problem-setting in, 
83, 90; continuity in, 114; 
many topics in, interesting to 
children, 121; American, now 
given in vigorous narratives, 

134, 135; important things in, 
147, 148, 150; things of second- 
ary importance in, 149, 150; 
curriculum enriched by, 189; 
formalism in, 193; standards 
in, 194; few important topics 
in, well organized, 242; course 
of study in, planned by Com- 
mittee of Eight in History, 
243; chiefly informational, 268; 
every child needs, 272. 

Home, the, 19, 23, 32, 33. 
Humorous, the, and the serious, 
220-22. 

Idealistic, the, and the useful, 
213-20. 

Illustrations, concrete, use of, 
111; showing the need of stren- 
uous and painful effort, 131- 
33; of things to be thoroughly 
understood and mastered, 147- 
49; of knowledge which is of 
secondary or transient value, 



149, 150; of crudeness and of 
gradually developing skill in 
children, 159, 160; of too ab- 
stract modes of teaching, 174, 
175; of excessive emphasis up- 
on the concrete, 175, 176; of a 
proper balance between con- 
crete and abstract modes of 
thought, 176-84; of marked 
tendencies toward formalism, 
193, 194; of over-emphasis on 
content, 194, 195. 

Impulsiveness, 24. 

Independent thought, and dicta- 
tion, 75-101; to be fostered 
from beginning of school life, 
78; a difficult problem, 92; ob- 
jections that may be urged 
against, 94; birthright of Amer- 
ican children, 95; discussion of 
Burgoyne's campaign, 95-101. 

Individual, the, and the social 
whole, 36-39, 231-36. 

Individual and class instruction, 
196-209; the advantages of 
each, 196-205; devices to har- 
monize, 205-08. 

Indulgence, a fault in school 
management, 21, 22. 

Industrial arts, 63, 88, 135, 136, 
163, 189, 218, 274. 

Inhibition, power of, 133. 

Initiative, 131. 

Instruction, 48-74; good, holds 
to central line of argument, 53; 
class and individual, 196-209. 

Interest, and effort, 120-30; posi- 
tive proofs of the value of, in 
studies, 133-37. 

Jackson, Stonewall, 28. 
James, William, 6; an advocate 
of the doctrine of effort, 124. 

Kerschensteiner, George, 93. 

Laboratory methods, 88, 89. 

Language, development of top- 
ics in, 63; is a dictation, 77; in- 
teresting to children, if rightly 
taught, 121. 



INDEX 



287 



Languages, foreign, 268; impor- 
tant things in, 148. 

Latin, 113; formalism in teach- 
ing of, 188, 193. 

Lecture method, 87, 88. 

Lecturers, public, 176. 

Literary studies, and natural sci- 
ences, conflict between, 216, 
217. 

Literature, development of top- 
ics in, 63; of historic peoples, 
136; things of secondary im- 
portance in, 150; and drama- 
tization, 175; every child needs, 
272. 

Locke, John, 201, 250. 

Logical continuity in thinking, 
48-74. 

Lyon, Mary, 28. 

Mann, Horace, 28, 47, 246. 

Mannheim, Germany, school 
system in vogue in, 208. 

Manual arts, 6, 76, 89, 148, 218, 
244. 

Manual training, 262, 274. 

Many-sidedness, needed in teach- 
er," 29. 

Map-drawing, 113, 151. 

Map study, things of secondary 
importance in, 149. 

Mathematics, every child needs, 
272. See Arithmetic, etc. 

Meese, John, 35. 

Mental and physical contrast in 
children, 223-28. 

Mind, must take in wide range of 
objects, 49; concentration of, 
on main steps in argument, 53. 

Moral education, basis of, in dis- 
pute, 5; standards in, 155, 156; 
danger of setting too high 
standards in, 161; versus secu- 
lar, 267-71. 

Motor activities, have developed 
in importance, 151; wide range 
of, up to sixteen years of age, 
154; dangers of setting too high 
standards for, 160, 161. 

Music, 136, 160, 161, 189, 197, 
272. 



Narrow-mindedness in the teach- 
er, 33, 34. 

Nature-study, interesting to chil- 
dren, 120, 121, 135; important 
things in, 147; sensory training 
in, 163; has not produced the 
results anticipated, 166, 262; 
curriculum enriched by, 189; 
one-time enthusiastic zeal for, 
238; union of theoretical and 
practical knowledge needed in, 
244. 

New York Harbor, discussion of, 
55-58. 

Normal schools, 255. 

Novels, 44. 

Obedience, and freedom, opposi- 
tion of, in school management, 
12-20, 78. 

Oral instruction, 195; distin- 
guishes German schools, 200. 

Oral-and-development method, 
89. 

Organization, of subjects for 
classroom study, 53, 54, 64, 
65; of concrete data to bring 
out general concept, 171-73. 

Outlines, 194, 195, 245. 

Over-thoroughness and superfi- 
ciality, 138-50, 159. 

Parker, Francis, 246. 

Particular and general notions, 
162. 

Pedagogy. See Education. 

Penalties, natural, 119. 

Penetration, needed by teacher, 
29, 32. 

Penn, William, topic, illustrated, 
145, 146. 

Percepts and concepts, 162, 163. 

Perfection and crudeness in 
work, 151-61. 

Personality, 28, 30, 34. 

Pestalozzi, J. H., 22, 33, 44, 246. 

Physical and mental, the, con- 
trast of, 223-28. 

Physical education, standards in, 
136, 154, 155. 

Physics, 76. 



288 



INDEX 



Picture shows, 176. 

Plato, 246, 250. 

Playgrounds, 18. 

Poems, 147, 148. 

Practical, the, and the artistic, 
contrast between, 218. 

Practice and theory, the gulf be- 
tween, 237-51. 

Problem-setting idea, 90-92. 

Progressives and conservatives, 
261-67. 

Psychology, 113. 

Questions, of children in school, 

115, 207; of teacher, 117. 
Quintilian, 250. 

Reaction, of the children to the 
teacher, 27; of grown-ups to 
conduct of children, 32. 

Readers, 174. 

Reading, contradictory views as 
to methods for beginners in, 4; 
development of topics in, 63; 
methods of learning, 193. 

Reading-lessons, 197. 

Realm of controversy, 3-11. 

Receptivity of teacher, 30, 31. 

Reforms in education, 262-65. 

Reserve in the teacher, 23-25. 

Richter, J. P., 3. 

Rousseau, J. J., 6, 201, 246, 250. 

Rules, 15, 20. 

Scholarship and science of edu- 
cation, controversy as to, 252- 
60. 

School management, 12-47. 

Schoolmaster. See Teacher. 

Schools, vocational training in, 
156-58. 

Science, development of topics in, 
63; problem-setting in, 83,90; a 
study of interest, 135; impor- 
tant things in, 147, 148; curric- 
ulum enriched by, 189; stand- 
ards in, 194; and literary study, 
conflict between, 216, 217; 
one-time enthusiastic zeal for, 
238; as study, not so successful 
as anticipated, 262; chiefly in- 



formational, 268; every child 
needs, 272. 

Science of education, and schol- 
arship, controversy as to, 252- 
60. 

Secular versus moral education, 
267-71. 

Self-activity, 131. 

Self-control, to be developed in 
school, 12-20. 

Self-help and help, 102-10. 

Sequence in thinking imperative, 
52, 53. 

Serious, the, and the humorous, 
220-22. 

Shop-work, 121, 151, 218. 

Skill, based on habit, 153; in 
children's motor activities, 
154, 155 ; in trade, acquired 
between ages of sixteen and 
twenty, 158, 273, 274; gradu- 
ally developing, examples of, 
159, 160. 

Social, groups in schools, 36-39; 
principle in school work, 196- 
209; science, 198, 199; whole, 
the, and the individual, two as- 
pects in education, 231-36. 

Society and child, contrasts in, 
223-36. 

Socrates, 104. 

Specialists, as teachers in high 
schools, 215. 

Specialization, 204; in vocational 
training, 157, 158, 203. 

Spelling, 151, 193. 

Spencer, Herbert, 218, 246. 

Spontaneity in the teacher, 23- 
25. 

Standards, of excellence, 138- 
61; business of school to set, 
151; for children's motor ac- 
complishments in school, con- 
stantly changing, 153, 158, 
159; strong, for motor activi- 
ties of young people, 155; for 
motor activities, dangers of 
setting them too high, 160, 
161; cases of low, 194, 195. 

Steamboating, topic, develop- 
ment of, 178-84. 



INDEX 



289 



Story-books, 176. 

Story-telling in primary grades, 
83, 120, 121, 133. 

Strong teacher, the, 27, 28, 33, 
34, 41-43. 

Stubbornness, a fault in school 
management, 22. 

Studies, the idealistic and the 
useful, 213-20; the serious and 
the humorous, 220-22. 

Superficiality and over-thorough- 
ness, 138-50, 159. 

Sympathy, needed by teacher, 
29, 30, 32-34, 38, 39, 41, 42. 

Teacher, how he is to bring about 
obedience and freedom in 
school, 15-20; should be deci- 
sive and gentle, 20-23; should 
combine reserve and spontane- 
ity, 23-25; should combine 
criticism and encouragement, 
25-27; the strong, 27, 28; and 
children, dualism between, 28, 
29; needs penetration and 
sympathy, 29; a receiver of in- 
fluences, 30; must combine en- 
ergy of will and sympathetic 
receptivity, 30, 31; sometimes 
misjudges children's conduct, 
31, 32 ;, should combine rigor- 
ous treatment with kindliness, 
32; should make a business of 
sensible child-study, 33; much 
injury can be done by, if he is 
strong but narrow-minded, 33, 
34; first duty of, to expand and 
enlarge his personality, 34; 
does not aim at profound schol- 
arship, 34; the qualifications of 
the best, 35, 36; the right- 
minded, is a discoverer, 36; 
must adjust opposition be- 
tween the individual and the 
social whole, 36-39; is law- 
maker, judge, and executive 
officer, 39; his needs in the 
three capacities, 40; summary 
of argument regarding atti- 
tude toward school manage- 
ment, 41-43; examples of, 43- 



47; has not developed much 
power of organization, 53, 54; 
should be trained in profes- 
sional school, 65; should have 
copious and well-organized 
body of usable knowledge, 65; 
to harmonize tendencies of 
dictation and independent 
thought, 80, 93 ; his use of text- 
books, 86, 87; one who is orig- 
inal needed to awaken orig- 
inality, 89; requirements of, for 
oral instruction, 89; naturally 
becomes dictatorial in teach- 
ing, 93, 94; should be liberal 
with conservative bias, 95; 
should encourage pupils by 
throwing light on difficulties, 
103; a helper, 103, 104; must 
reconcile help and self-help, 
108-10; permissible ways in 
which he may help children, 
110-16; ways in which he 
wrongly helps children, 116- 
20; should interest children in 
solution of important prob- 
lems, 129; should discriminate 
between main facts and collat- 
eral facts, 144; and standards 
of perfection, 151-55; is an ad- 
juster, 154; in upper grades, 
too much inclined to be ab- 
stract, 164; should carry topics 
through concrete line of experi- 
ence, 165; should move back 
and forth between concrete 
and abstract, 167; reasons 
why he has not been able to 
solve proper combination of 
abstract and concrete, 173; his 
business, first of all, to arouse 
thought, 189; must combine 
in due proportions form and 
thought, 192; must unify per- 
sonal elements in class, 198; 
should be all-round social crea- 
ture, 199, 215; must shift be- 
tween class and individual ef- 
fort, 205; extra, 207; way in 
which he may prepare himself 
to adjust social and individual 



290 



INDEX 



needs of class, 209; should 
unite literary and scientific in- 
terest, 217; often too serious, 
220; should combine serious 
and humorous, 221, 222; must 
study physical, as well as men- 
tal, aspect of child, 227; should 
judge individual capacity and 
contradictory traits, 230; 
should harmonize individual 
and social needs, 234, 235; 
much in need of rational theory 
to guide practice, 243, 247; 
German, has more faith in sci- 
entific method, 249; supreme 
test of, teaching-skill in class- 
room, 249; should combine 
scholarship and knowledge of 
pedagogy, 252-60; attitude of, 
toward conservatives and pro- 
gressives, 265-67; has tend- 
ency toward partisanship and 
conflict, 278; qualities of a su- 
perior, 279-81. 

Textbook method of teaching, 
75, 77, 79-82, 84-87; the great 
merit of, 87. 

Textbook organization, 53. 

Textbooks, criticisms of, 85, 86, 
242; graded with care, 105; 
train children in abstract 
phraseology, 164, 173-75. 

Theme-writing, 76. 

Theory and practice, the gulf be- 
tween, 237-51. 

Thinking, logical continuity and 
cross lines in, 48-74; compara- 
tive, 59; half the time in school- 



work should be spent in, 61; re- 
flective, 61, 63; three errors in, 
62, 63; independent, 75. 

Thoroughness, 138; too great, 
139-50. 

Thought and form, 184-95. 

Tool-work, 151. 

Topics, method of development 
of, 48-64; reasons for neglect 
of this method, 64; treatment 
of Erie Canal topic, 66-74. 

Tories, the, topic illustrating by 
treatment the concrete and the 
abstract, 168-70. 

Training, general and vocational, 
271-77. See Vocational train- 
ing- 
Tutorial system, 201, 202. 

Useful, the, and the idealistic, 
213-20. 

Vocational training, diversity of 
ideas in regard to, 5; demand 
for, 156, 238; in schools, 156- 
58; is a demand for specializa- 
tion, 203; is a new movement, 
262, 264; and general training, 
271-77. 

Will, discipline of, 122-26; the 
strong but unbalanced, 128. 

Words, uncommon, should not be 
emphasized to the neglect of 
the common, 139, 140, 150. 

Writing, standard in, 151; danger 
of setting too high standards 
in, 161. 



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